France

[FR] New rules on obligatory investments for French broadcasters in audiovisual production

IRIS 1996-1:1/20

Ad van Loon

European Audiovisual Observatory

Article 27(3) French law relating to the freedom of communication ( Loi à la liberté de communication ) obliges French broadcasters to contribute to the development of European cinematographic and audiovisual works and of works that were originally produced in the French language. They are also obliged to invest in the acquisition of broadcasting rights of such works. This provision was implemented by Decree No 90-67 of 17 January 1990, which stipulated that broadcasters should invest 15% of their annual turnover in the commissioning of such audiovisual works from producers that are independent of broadcasters and to broadcast annually 120 hours of such audiovisual works at primetime hours or, alternatively, to invest 20% of their annual turnover in the commissioning of such audiovisual works without an obligation to broadcast these works. On 6 November 1995, this Decree was replaced by a new Decree, allowing greater flexibility to the French media authority Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA). Now, the French broadcasters can either commission audiovisual works worth 15% of their annual turnover and respect the obligation to broadcast them or, alternatively, they can agree with the CSA to invest more money in the production of audiovisual works, in return for a lowering of the number of primetime hours in which they actually have to broadcast such works. The products in which they are meant to invest are: works that are originally produced in the French language, European audiovisual works, the broadcasting rights of such works, or the development of scripts or projects for such works.

The Decree of 17 January 1990 also obliged French broadcasters broadcasting unencrypted signals via terrestrial frequencies, to invest 3% of their annual turnover in film production. The new Decree allows these broadcasters to invest 0.5% of this amount in European co-productions.