The Lazio Tar rejects the former Minister of Cultural Heritage, Dario Franceschini
The reason? The programming windows of the cinemas. The second section of the regional administrative court in fact accepted the company’s appeal Mmrcinema s.r.l which asked the judges to annul the decree of the Minister of Culture n. 120 of 29.3.2022. An act with which Franceschini broke a spear in favor of the big American companies of theon demand damaging Italian cinemas. But let’s go step by step.
It all started with Covid
It is from this moment that the “programming window”, which consists of the period of mandatory “use in the cinema”. This is the phase prior to the diffusion of the film to the public through “audiovisual media service providers” or “home entertainment publishers”, as explained by sentence 05634/2023 of last April 3, drawn up by the drafting judge Mario Alberto di Nezza.
The period in question starts from the date of the first screening to the public and allows cinemas to have a sort of exclusive before the film ends on platforms such as Netflix or Amazon. Not only that: it also guarantees part of the returns of producers and distributors. In other words, it represents a sort of “protected area” which also guarantees pluralism in film production and the entire chain of Italian cinema.
The window in question was originally set at 105 days by the ministerial decree of 29 November 2018, adopted after obtaining the opinion of the Superior Council of Cinema and Audiovisual. With Covid, given the emergency pandemic situation, it had been reduced to 30 days until December 31, 2021.
The pandemic has been a real setback for cinemas
After the state of emergency, the managers of the cinemas expected not only refreshments, but above all more protections from the government of Mario Draghi. The situation was very delicate: while in France in September last year the market had already restarted, recovering 75%, in Italy we were still at 45%, as he explained Leandro Pesci, president of the National Association of cinema exhibitors which had also posed the problem related to the management of film release times in order not to penalize the box office collection.
“We need to define large time windows before new films move from the big screen to viewing on platforms as happens in other countries,” he explained Manuele Ilari, number one of the Union of Italian cinema exhibitors.
The reference was to Minister Dario Franceschini who had instead decided to bring the exclusivity window for the screening of new films in cinemas to 90 days “on the basis of the deemed opportunity to” modify the existing discipline “as explained by the TAR.
But the ministry turned a deaf ear
The exhibitors’ protests were not heard. So Mmrcinema srl turned to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court. You highlighted how the provision had not been preceded by the opinion of the Superior Council of Cinema and Audiovisual. In defense of Franceschini’s work, the State Attorney’s Office argued that the opinion was not necessary. But according to the Tar, the appellant’s censure is well founded, while “the arguments of the Ministry cannot be shared”.
For the administrative magistrates “the council expressed its opinion on the need to create a solution of continuity between the priority exit in the room and the subsequent exploitation of a cinematographic work on other distribution channelswith the recommendation to provide for a minimum period of time between the two releases, as well as to lengthen the period of the cinematographic windows for cinematographic works with more restricted distribution outlets to slightly lengthen the period of the cinematographic window”.
Thus the Tar decided to rebalance the situation by canceling Franceschini’s provision and bringing the window back to 105 days. Godsend for the cinema chain in Italy. A little less for the international big names.