Paris (AFP)

Swiss or African series, Canadian or French films, but also documentaries, concerts, podcasts ... The international French-speaking channel TV5 Monde is launching on Wednesday its worldwide - and free - video-on-demand platform, its response "in French" to the American giants like Netflix.

The fruit of two years of work, TV5MondePlus intends to offer 5,000 hours of French-language programs with subtitles in five languages: in English, Spanish, Arabic, German ... and in French, for those who would like to perfect their practice within one year. of the language of Molière.

Unlike an SVOD platform, TV5MondePlus will be free and will be able to broadcast advertising.

All you need to do is register to access the content.

"We are not positioning ourselves as a competitor to American platforms, we do not have the pretension or the means, but as an alternative in French", told AFP the director general of TV5 Monde, Yves Bigot.

"It is the planetary French-speaking sovereignty which is at stake, it is French in the digital universe as in the universe of television", insisted Mr. Bigot, also president of the foundation of the Alliances Françaises.

Among the 3,000 hours of content already available - and translated in "80% of cases", the health crisis having caused delays - there are many programs or shows already broadcast by the "partner" channels of TV5 Monde (France Télévisions, Radio-Canada , Télé-Québec, TV5 Québec Canada, RTS, RTBF) or its network.

Thus, users will be able to (re) discover the entire Quebec series "Unity 9" which, like the creation of Netflix "Orange is the New Black", takes place in the female prison universe, or the Swiss series and Belgian "Quartier des Banques", a family saga set against a backdrop of a financial thriller.

- "Pushed" by Canada -

But the platform is also intended to host exclusives, like the African political series "Wara", co-produced in Saint-Louis, Senegal and which will be broadcast "much later on our traditional channels", according to Mr. Bigot.

In addition to series and cinema, TV5MondePlus, "generalist", will offer "magazines, talk shows, reportage" and programs from partners such as the Musée de l'Homme, the Collège de France or the Canadian Cultural Center in Paris.

It will be accessible at tv5mondeplus.com anywhere in the world except, for the time being, in China where negotiations are underway, and not before the second half of 2021 in the United States and the Netherlands, due to contractual issues.

Through its global ambition and its free access, TV5 Monde Plus intends to distinguish itself from the Salto subscription video service (paying) that France Télé, TF1 and M6 are preparing to launch this fall.

The project of a global digital French-speaking platform, mentioned by Emmanuel Macron at the Francophonie summit in Yerevan (Armenia) in October 2018, was "pushed" by Canada, which experienced "the strength and power of Netflix on its territory before Europe ", underlined Mr. Bigot.

"At home, Netflix has 60% of the market share in prime time and consumes 40% of the bandwidth. Obviously they were the first to ask us and support us," he said.

The Canadian government has thus invested "14 million Canadian dollars over 5 years", according to Mr. Bigot who cannot quantify the overall cost of the platform, partly financed by the "108 million" euros of annual budget of TV5 Monde .

Founded in 1984, the channel is 49% owned by France Télévisions.

France Médias Monde owns 12.64%, RTBF and SSR each hold 11.11%, Radio-Canada 6.67%, Télé Québec 4.44%, Arte France 3.29% and INA 1.74% .

© 2020 AFP