Canal+ sits at the centre of a fight over the 2027 French budget, after the government proposed raising VAT on pay-television subscriptions from 10% to 20%, a change the industry warns would cut the broadcaster’s film spending sharply. The concern was first reported by Le Monde on 28 September, before the finance bill was tabled on 1 October.
Updated 07:08 CET, 26 October 2026: adds the VAT figure, Canal+’s estimate, the filmmakers’ letter, the committee vote and where the amendment now stands.
Key facts
- The 2027 finance bill (PLF 2027), tabled on 1 October, would raise VAT on pay-TV subscriptions from 10% to 20% under its Article 16.
- Canal+ chief Maxime Saada estimates an impact of about €200m ($224m) a year and says the broadcaster could fund “half, perhaps three-quarters” fewer films.
- Canal+’s 2028–2032 film commitment, signed in July, is worth €980m ($1.1bn); France Télévisions faces a €47m ($53m) cut.
- 174 filmmakers, including Jacques Audiard, Justine Triet and the Dardenne brothers, warned of up to 400 fewer films over five years and called for a dedicated cinema law.
- The finance committee deleted Article 16 on 9 October but then rejected the whole first part, so the floor is debating the government text with Article 16 still in it.
France funds film partly by taxing the companies that show it, and Canal+ is the largest single contributor. Speaking on RTL on 5 October, Maxime Saada put the cost of the VAT change at around €200m ($224m) a year and warned the broadcaster might fund “half, perhaps three-quarters” fewer films, calling the measure “absurde” and politically driven. He said the extra cost would ultimately pass to subscribers, though not before the 2028–2029 period. Canal+’s current commitment to French cinema, an accord signed in July covering 2028–2032, is worth €980m ($1.1bn); the industry’s fear is that a higher tax undercuts the basis for that deal.
The reaction has been broad. Thirteen film organisations wrote to President Macron, and on 14 October a Le Monde tribune signed by 174 filmmakers, among them Jacques Audiard, Justine Triet and the Dardenne brothers, warned that the country could lose about 80 films a year and €750m ($840m) for 2028–2032, or roughly 400 films, and called for a dedicated “loi cinéma.” Separately, France Télévisions faces a budget cut of €47m ($53m). The authors’ society SACD welcomed the absence of new levies on the CNC, the national film body, but criticised the rest of the package.
The parliamentary path is unresolved, which is the point to hold onto. The finance committee deleted Article 16 on 9 October, then rejected the entire first part of the bill, so the floor is debating the government’s original text with the VAT rise still in it. Floor debate opened on 13 October; a planned 20 October vote on part one was postponed with roughly 2,600 amendments outstanding, and debate resumes from 27 October, with transmission to the Senate expected by 17 November. As of today, Article 16 has not been voted on the floor.
The financing argument rhymes with others we are tracking, from the Red Sea Fund’s grants to the distribution question in who is actually taking films to audiences. For how release strategy sits on top of financing, see our Money & Policy coverage.
Our reading
The practical watchpoint has not changed: whether a proposal becomes a measure that cuts actual commissioning. Saada’s €200m figure is a worst case from the party most exposed, so treat it as a ceiling, not a forecast. The number that will matter is what survives the floor and the Senate, and whether any VAT rise comes with an offset that protects the Canal+ accord. Until the vote resumes and clears, this is a negotiation, not a new rulebook, and the industry’s letters are part of that bargaining.