October 31, 2024
Revenue transparency in the film industry is a major issue, given the sums involved. In recent years, in France, bodies such as the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC) have stepped up their efforts to ensure clear, accessible tracking of revenues from the exploitation of works. Producers, at the heart of the value chain, need to master these tools and obligations to navigate serenely in an increasingly standardized environment.
Revenue transparency is essential for several reasons:
1. Protection of rightsholders: guaranteeing a return on investment for creators, producers and investors depends on precise traceability of revenues, from ticket sales to digital receipts.
2. Fair redistribution: revenues from a work must be distributed in accordance with contracts between all contributors. Greater transparency helps to avoid conflicts and build trust between the parties involved.
3. Regulatory compliance: the CNC, through mechanisms such as the Transparency Decrees, ensures that producers adhere to rigorous revenue reporting and accounting practices.
4. Confidence of funders: in view of the current changes, the industry needs to attract new funders, and confidence in the figures is key.
The French Transparency Decrees of 2021, resulting from the Audiovisual Law, require producers to make detailed and regular declarations of revenues generated by their works, regardless of the platform or distribution channel. In concrete terms, producers must :
- Provide complete financial reports, including revenues from theatrical release, streaming, VOD and other platforms.
- Use the tools provided by the CNC to centralize and standardize this data, enabling a transparent and uniform overview.
- Ensure that all stakeholders, including rights holders and financial partners, have easy access to essential profitability data.
These decrees are designed to fill historic gaps in revenue traceability, and are part of a drive for greater control and transparency.
The aim of this CNC initiative is to promote technological innovation in revenue transparency and rights traceability, to help producers better manage financial flows. The tools that emerge from this call for projects, whether management software such as Blockframes (www.blockframes.io) or data-sharing platforms, enable producers to :
- Automate and simplify the collection of revenues from each distribution channel.
- Minimize reporting errors while saving time thanks to high-performance digital tools.
- Conform to the expectations of rightsholders, while ensuring full transparency with partners.
Faced with these new requirements, producers need to integrate these transparency tools and practices into their day-to-day management. This means :
1. Training in the new obligations: understanding the specifics of the Transparency Decrees and CNC requirements.
2. Investing in appropriate management tools: the Transparence call for projects allows us to finance tools that facilitate revenue traceability. Exploring available solutions can give you a competitive edge.
3. Establish close collaboration with partners: producers, distributors and exhibitors must ensure that revenue information is shared and accessible, in line with CNC expectations.
By integrating transparency into their practices, producers actively participate in the professionalization of the sector, while reinforcing their credibility with rightsholders. With these measures, the CNC is providing the keys to fairer, more secure revenue tracking, enabling creators to enjoy the fruits of their labor.