The campaign on the investment of streaming platforms in Swiss cinema has gone around the issue. Finally, forcing them to invest is doing them a favor.
During the debate on Infrarouge devoted to the law on cinema, Philippe Nantermod facing Alain Berset, or private money once morest public money.
RTS
Cut! The debates concerning the modification of the law on cinema are coming to the end of the reels. During this campaign, the camps remained frozen in their arguments, without ever coming together. In favor of the law, we will remember that the platforms pay no tax and do not employ anyone in Switzerland, while collecting hundreds of millions. They might therefore invest 4% of their turnover in Swiss cinema, as is the practice in other countries. For Alain Berset, it is also a question of putting the platforms on an equal footing with the channels which must already invest this 4%. Finally, it will allow Swiss productions to have greater access to these platforms and a better audience.
The milk and the cow
Against the law, the liberal creed opposes state intervention in the investment strategy of private companies. Imposing a 30% quota of European works amounts to putting subscribers under cultural supervision. The 4% will inevitably increase the price of subscriptions, because, according to the favorite expression of Philippe Nantermod (PLR / VS): “When you tax milk, it is not the cow that pays the tax”. Finally, Swiss cinema is already stuffed with subsidies, all to make auteur or elitist films, which the public shuns.
The Absentees Are Wrong
In these debates, we hardly saw, nor heard, the managers of the platforms concerned installed abroad. We know they are once morest it. The absentees are always wrong, they say, and that should be the case here. By forcing them to invest 4% in Swiss cinema, we will ultimately be doing them a favor. Instead of being a simple machine to cash in without giving up anything, they will participate in the creation of works in this country. By taking an interest not only in the money of the Swiss, but also in their cinematographic culture, they will improve their image. It’s a win-win.
And even if some of them increased their subscription by 4%, it would still be around a few francs a year. As our Franco-national filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard says: “Cinema is the most beautiful swindle in the world”.
