From the box of “Squid Game” to the contract with Omar Sy, Netflix is ​​stepping up its offensive – archyworldys

It all started with a playground hobby called “the squid game”. A hopscotch in the shape of the mollusk to which it owes its name, and inside which the players must push their opponents without coming out … Under penalty of being, symbolically, “killed”. The game inspired a South Korean to create an ultra-violent fictional scenario, in which over-indebted people participate in children’s games. With a major stake: win 32 million euros or be executed.

“Squid Game” (literally “the squid game”) has become a Netflix series. And since it was put online on September 17, it has caused a tidal wave: already seen 111 million times after 26 days, she signs the best start ever for a series of the American platform. Popular on all continents, pirated in China where the streaming giant is blocked, Korean fiction sees its derivative products torn apart and parodies flourish on social networks.

This is not the first time that Netflix has turned a production that did not look like gold into gold. Already she had allowed “La Casa de Papel”, “Fauda” and “Alice in Borderland”, which lived in Spain, Israel and Japan respectively, to become global successes. Not content with triumphing with its English-speaking products like “The Chronicle of the Bridgertons”, “The Lady’s Game”, Where “Sex / Life”, now, the streaming giant is also creating the event with “foreign” creations.

At the same time as this raid on the series, the platform has just carried out a raid on a French star in signing a multi-year contract with Omar Sy, the hero of “Lupine”, one of his other cartoons. And while it continues to attract prestigious Anglo-Saxon filmmakers (from Martin Scorsese to Jane Campion, passing Steven Soderbergh and David Fincher), Netflix offers itself the new film by Dany Boon this Wednesday … The broadcaster of the “Game squid ”would he be an octopus determined to siphon off talents from all over the world?

Content addict

Boosted by the health crisis in Covid-19, the world number one in paid video on demand, with 209 million subscribers (including 6.7 million officially in France at the start of 2020), is spreading its tentacles wherever it can. Bulimic of talents, he also grants himself coveted content: on September 22, he spent an amount estimated at one billion dollars (862 million euros approximately) to adapt in animated series sixteen books of the genius of children’s literature Roald Dahl (including “Le Bon Gros Géant”). Netflix is ​​even investing in new genres by launching, for example, in mid-September the filming of “Nouvelle École”, the French version of a telecrochet dedicated to rap.

While subscribers can rejoice in this creative effervescence, TV channels and the movie industry are worried. How to stand up to this bulldozer and still seduce actors, directors… and spectators? Some broadcasters and producers have already chosen to partner with Netflix for partnerships. All are looking for new avenues, while a study by Digital TV Research ensures that in 2026, the number of subscribers to video streaming platforms will increase from 1.14 billion to 1.64 billion.