France

[FR] SACEM and France Télévisions Sign Agreement

IRIS 2012-7:1/24

Amélie Blocman

Légipresse

On 15 June 2012, the French company of authors, composers and editors of music (Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Éditeurs de Musique - SACEM) and France Télévisions announced they had signed an agreement on the broadcasting of works listed in SACEM’s repertoire on all the channels in the France Télévisions group. This agreement replaces the previous agreements, which had covered use by the various channels, with a single contract. This simplifies matters considerably, since it applies to all the channels operated by France Télévisions, which became a single undertaking by virtue of the Act of 5 March 2009. The agreement covers the widest possible broadcasting of musical works, including not only linear use by the France Télévisions TV channels and radio stations, but also non-linear services and their new screens (streaming on their Internet sites, catch-up TV, preview TV, and Francetv pluzz), for which negotiations had been in hand but had not yet been concluded.

The agreement covers the repertoires of musical works, musical documentaries and clips, voice-overs and subtitling, humour, poetry and sketches. It takes into account the requirement of fair remuneration for authors, composers and editors of music (without publication being involved), and institutes a new structure for financing France Télévisions featuring an increase in the proportion of public resources and its transformation into a single undertaking. The agreement is valid until the end of 2015. Although France’s new Government appears to have announced a number of plans for reforming the public-sector audiovisual scene, these should not in theory jeopardise the progress made in this respect.