Orange has signed an agreement with three professional organisations representing the French cinema industry for its Orange cinema series package - BLIC (Bureau de Liaison des Industries Cinématographiques), BLOC members (Bureau de Liaison des Organisations du Cinéma), and ARP (Société civil des Auteurs Réalisateurs et Producteurs).

The five-year agreement was signed last week at the French Ministry for Culture, between Frédéric Mitterand, Minister for Culture and Communications, Didier Lombard, CEO of France Telecom, and representatives from the organisations involved. The agreement is expected to enable Orange to strengthen its partnership with French movie producers, both through pre-purchase (Orange cinema series) and co-production (Studio 37).

Orange cinema series guarantees a minimum investment of €80mn over three years in French and European cinema. The subsidiary is also committed to ensuring that at least 60% of its obligation to acquire French films will involve pre-purchases. Orange cinema series is also committed to immediately devoting 25% of its obligation to acquire French films to productions with budgets of €5.35mn or less.

The package will also provide financial backing for the industry to distribute and show films in cinemas, aiming more specifically to support their digitisation, as well as the diversity of film distribution.