France

[FR] Public Consultation on Digital Local Television in the Ile-de-France Region

IRIS 2005-10:1/25

Philie Marcangelo-Leos

Légipresse

At its plenary meeting on 11 October 2005, the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (French audiovisual regulatory body - CSA) decided to launch a public consultation on the terrestrial broadcasting of local television services in digital mode in the Ile-de-France region. The purpose of this consultation is to discover the expectations and projects of the players in the market, and it is based on Article 31 of the Act of 30 September 1986, as amended, according to which decisions on using radio-electric resources likely to substantially alter the market in question must, before a call for applications is put out, be the subject of a public consultation. This consultation will make it possible to gather the relevant replies; it will end on 6 January 2006. Through the information gathered in this way, the regulatory authority is seeking to determine what coverage will be envisaged for the local digital multiplex and in particular if it will be appropriate to limit the technical characteristics of the frequency in order to remain below the threshold of ten million inhabitants, in view of the legal implications of this threshold. The same applies to application of the arrangements to prevent concentration and for production obligations. The people concerned will have to give their opinion on the need to take steps to facilitate reception in portable or mobile mode, on the technical characteristics of the services envisaged, and on the number of channels that should be opened within the multiplex. Local television stations are extremely varied in terms of broadcasting medium, coverage area, type of content, production origin, sources of financing and budgets. The difficulty lies in defining what should be understood by “local television”. The debate on the place of local television in the broadcasting networks has come to the fore in the light of the prospects opened up by digital technology. But in fact the emergence of terrestrial digital television has not yet lived up to its promises in terms of the development of local television, and France is lagging far behind the rest of Europe in this field.