Stéphane Richard, the company’s chief executive, also had said he would not work with Netflix, fearful<br />that Orange would become a “Trojan horse,” potentially helping the streaming service gain a global following, only to then cast Orange aside.<br />The company’s partnerships with cable and cellphone operators worldwide give it almost instantaneous access to potential new users without having to spend a fortune on advertising<br />and distribution deals in markets where its brand and content are often still relatively unknown.<br />But in the end, he said, “we got a deal done.”<br />Such negotiations have become increasingly commonplace for Netflix as its global ambitions have taken the content<br />streaming service far from its California roots into markets across Europe, Latin America and Asia.<br />In response, late last year, Comcast decided to include the streaming service on its set-top<br />cable box, so people could watch Netflix without having to leave Comcast’s digital universe.<br />Orange has also entered into an undisclosed revenue-sharing pact in France, which has often<br />been wary of the potential for Netflix’s American shows to outmuscle local content.<br />Along with the typical back-and-forth about how much revenue each side would receive from the deal, Orange was concerned<br />that Netflix, whose European headquarters are in Amsterdam, had not signed on to French rules requiring online video distributors to fund local-language content.
