France moves towards advertisment-free public service television
The phasing out of advertising on public service television starting in 2009 sees the dawn of a new media age in France. On 22 October, Culture and Communication Minister Christine Albanel presented to the Council of Ministers the most important reform of French broadcasting for 20 years. It was instigated by President Sarkozy in February 2008 and the relevant bills¹ draw on the report of the Commission for a New Television chaired by Jean-François Copé.
The reform has two main features:
1. - It relieves public service television from the commercial pressure by advertisers by phasing out advertising on the five France Télévisions terrestrial channels. Starting on 5 January 2009, advertising will gradually be removed between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. and scrapped altogether after completion of the digital switchover, scheduled for the end of 2011. This will give broadcasters far more freedom to develop creative content and produce high-quality programmes for discerning audiences.
Two new taxes are to be introduced to make up for the ensuing loss of revenue: a 3% tax on advertising revenues of commercial TV channels and one of around 0.9% on the electronic communications sector (e.g. mobile phone operators). The licence fee, currently €116, will be indexed to inflation, initially rising slightly to €118. To help compensate commercial networks for the new tax, these (which include the privately-owned TF1) will be allowed to extend their long advertisement breaks in the evenings to target peak viewing times.
2. - It remodels the structure of France Télévisions, encouraging the emergence of “global media”, and transforming it into a single company composed of several networks giving all French citizens access to public sector broadcasting content thanks to the development of digital technology. Responsibility for appointing the heads of the national programme companies will rest with the French President, who will make his/her choice with due regard for the imperatives of pluralism and media independence. The choice, announced by decree, will have to have been approved by the Higher Council for the Audiovisual Sector (CSA), France’s broadcasting authority, and been the subject of consultation of the French National Assembly and Senate in accordance with the French Constitution. The current heads may however continue to serve until the end of their contracts.
The reform also provides for the consolidation of France’s ongoing reform of external broadcasting to create the conditions for the emergence of a powerful French and Francophone media group capable of stimulating greater awareness abroad of France and her culture and transposes into French law European Parliament and Council Directive 2007/65EC of 11 December 2007 concerning television broadcasting activities, e.g. VOD (video on demand)./.
¹Institutional bill on the appointment of the heads of the France Telévisions companies and bill on audiovisual communication and the new public service television (in French)