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Pierre Siracusa, Director of the Youth and Education Department at France TV, who recently visited Armenia, held a meeting with film and animation producers on April 9. The meeting, which took place at the Armenian Cinema Foundation, focused on investment programs and production secrets in films, TV series (both children’s and non-children’s), feature films, and documentaries.
Siracusa, who lives in a city near Paris with a large Armenian community, is very familiar with Armenians. However, as he mentioned, “I don’t yet speak Armenian, so I prefer to speak French.”
According to Siracusa, French public television channels have been leading for several years now.
“The influx of various digital channels has had a surprisingly positive impact on public television, while private television channels have suffered from digital. People expect a certain stability from public television; they trust the information it provides. The current trends in linear consumption, which are decreasing, are favorable for public channels, if they are able to develop digital platforms and offer digital content. We are convinced that the real value of France TV and other traditional television channels lies in linearity. People still need traditional channels, from which they expect specific programs. This is an advantage we have, and which streaming platforms lack,” he emphasized.
Pierre Siracusa also believes that platforms like Netflix and Amazon entered the scene quite aggressively. “They were also aggressive in terms of production. They came to France and sought talented people. After these platforms entered France, they were not interested in discussions with us. It was complete autonomy. Netflix reached out to us to present proposals and to have influence in the youth sector. We had bought several IPs imposed by the linear ones. The streaming platforms said they needed these linear channels to distribute their content. Netflix solved that problem with marketing investments,” said the France TV representative.
Today, France TV enjoys a high reputation and is a leader in terms of digital video views. Siracusa noted that a quarter of global consumption comes from animation, calling it special. "It is quite profitable for public television channels to have animation," he emphasized.
France TV finances fifty percent of French-produced animation, with the other fifty percent shared by five private players. “We play a very important role in the sector; we support it and regulate it. We allocate 35 million euros annually to animation, 4 million euros to cinema, and 31 million euros to television. Most of that money goes to children’s TV series aimed at children aged 5 to 10."
Siracusa arrived in Armenia at the special invitation of the “ReA” festival and in cooperation with France TV, with the support of the French Embassy in Armenia and the French Institute of Armenia.
