France’s minister of culture Franck Riester has asked broadcasting watchdog CSA, telecom regulator Arcep and anti-piracy authority Hadopi to review the draft law that the government is preparing for the largest reform of the audio-visual sector in over thirty years, reports Contexte. Described as a huge piece of legislation, the draft document includes 87 articles and puts forward significant changes, particularly for the CSA. Among them, the minister is proposing to merge together the broadcasting watchdog and Hadopi, under a new authority for audio-visual and digital communication to be called Arcom (Autorite de regulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numerique).
Riester also intends to create a new holding structure under which several public entities will be placed, including broadcasters France Televisions, Radio France and France Medias Monde. Called France Medias, this entity will aim to implement a common strategy and greater collaboration among different public broadcasting groups, under a model that has been described as similar to the BBC in the UK. The reforms also cover the way the leaders of the public broadcasting groups will be nominated. For example, France Medias will be in charge of its own appointments, rather than relying on the CSA.
In recent weeks, the minister revealed that the new law would introduce obligations to finance French and European content creation for SVoD platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. This investment will have to amount to at least 16 percent of revenues generated in France, with commitments on the exact sums and type of financing to be agreed with new authority Arcom.
The current consultation process will soon move forward with a review from the Council of State. The law will be presented to government ministers at the end of November, with a first reading in parliament planned for early next year.
