France

[FR] Senate Report Analyses Impact of Liberalising Television Advertising

IRIS 2005-8:1/21

Philie Marcangelo-Leos

Légipresse

A Senate report examines the impact of the deregulation brought about as a result of the Decree of 7 October 2003 (see IRIS 2003-8: 9 and IRIS 2004-2: 12) concerning television advertising for sectors that were previously prohibited (press, publishing, distribution). Whereas the press is now totally free to advertise, this is not the case for either publishing, which may only advertise on theme channels, or distribution, which is limited from 1 January 2004 to 1 January 2007 to local channels and to cable and satellite channels. The Government deliberately allowed the distribution sector to advertise in this way in order to give local television a boost, but did it realise the real extent of the measure in terms of pluralism? The report provides the elements of a reply to this question by evaluating more particularly the effects of this continuous process of liberalisation on the pluralism of the media and competition. France appears to be one of the European countries where television advertising is most strictly regulated. The main aim of the regulations is to preserve a sharing of resources from advertising favourable to the viability of the various media. This limited deregulation must necessarily be accompanied in order to compensate for its asymmetrical effects on the media, to the detriment of radio, the regional daily press and public-sector television channels. The report envisages the various possibilities for remedying the phenomenon of advertising concentration and the difficulties created for the press, the public audiovisual sector and television creation. The increase in advertising resources in the public sector creates serious difficulties. Would it therefore be preferable to favour other financial methods such as off-media advertising or television sponsoring, or even to introduce structural measures on audiovisual programming and production? Although this relaxation of the regulations should result in an increase in the quantity of television's revenue from advertising, its impact remains modest, as demonstrated by the rapporteur in noting the under-developed market for media advertising in France, whereas there is a high proportion of “off-media” advertising. Advertising plays such a fundamental role in the financing of the media that it appears to be necessary to continue consideration of the deregulation process, which is far from being complete, particularly as there are a number of projects aimed at relaxing advertising regulations both in France and at the European level. These refer more particularly to those sectors not or only partly affected by the 2003 Decree, namely publishing, the cinema, distribution and wine.