France

[FR] “Web COSIP” Decree Published

IRIS 2011-5:1/22

Amélie Blocman

Légipresse

The “Web COSIP” Decree, announced last October by the Minister for Culture who wanted to see it in place by 1 January 2011 and awaited since then by the profession, was finally gazetted on 3 April 2011. The text, which is applicable immediately, extends the benefit of financial support to audiovisual production (“COSIP”) other than works intended for television. It supplements the existing CNC support arrangements of selective support in favour of projects for the new media, which has been in existence since 2007, and selective and automatic for audiovisual works using “mixed” financing (TV and Internet), which has been in existence since 2008. This support will therefore now apply for all works made available by an editor of an on-demand service, particularly on the Internet. The Decree also adapts the criteria for qualifying an audiovisual production company as independent for granting selective financial support. According to Eric Garandeau, CNC’s Chairman, “These various mechanisms illustrate the desire on the part of the Ministry of Culture and Communication and the CNC to support cinematographic and audiovisual creation on the new digital platforms, the Internet and the mobile media that represent interesting opportunities for broadcasting and exploiting French and European works.”

Another Decree, “on financial aid for the new production technologies”, was published on the same day; its aim is to update the support arrangements to include the use of new techniques for manufacturing and for image and sound processing. In doing so, it brings together in a single document all the existing arrangements for aid. Thus selective financial aid may be granted in the form of subsidies to production companies established in France that make use of the new techniques for manufacturing and for image and sound processing when producing full-length or short cinematographic works “using stereoscopic techniques for stereoscopic projection in cinema theatres” and “models and media intended to present the initial visual and sound elements of a project for a full-length cinematographic work”. Aid is granted on the basis of both the innovative nature of the techniques used and the appropriateness of using these techniques to the artistic nature of the project. The Decree sets up a committee to be consulted for an opinion before the CNC’s Chairman decides whether or not to grant the aid.