France

[FR] First Report by the Commission for Monitoring the Use made of Connected Television

IRIS 2013-2:1/24

Amélie Blocman

Légipresse

The “Commission for Monitoring the Use Made of Connected Television”, launched in February 2012 and headed by Emmanuel Gabla, a member of the national audiovisual regulatory authority (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA), brings together about 80 professionals in the sector. On 5 December 2012 it reported on the first stage of its work. “It is obviously not a question of aligning regulation of the new services with regulation of audiovisual services. On the other hand, there is no thought of massively deregulating the audiovisual sector,” according to CSA Chairman Michel Boyon. He also said that three of the 14 proposals made by the Commission could be introduced very quickly. Firstly, the proposal to set up an observatory of the use made of connected television, with a view to improving knowledge of the use made of the technologies concerned in terms of both quality and quantity, since this knowledge is “still fragmentary”. The second priority proposal would involve drawing up general recommendations and good practices regarding personal data, in collaboration with the national commission on information technology and liberties (Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés - CNIL), the CSA and the competent organisations. The third proposal would call for the “launch of inter-professional discussion on revising certain obligations contained in the regulations”. For example, regarding media chronology, the different schemes to which the traditional stakeholders in the television and Internet sectors are currently subject, in France and elsewhere, are deemed uneven and in some cases discriminatory. Similarly, the Commission feels there should be concertation among professionals on what tidying-up is necessary in connection with convergence, obligations in respect of catch-up TV, and the thresholds for obligations imposed on on-demand audiovisual media services.

The proposals put forward include adopting tax measures aimed at limiting imbalances in competition in respect of the new stakeholders, and maintaining the effects of the mechanisms for financing creation. One of the methods suggested for achieving this is to extend the tax supplying the fund supporting the programme industry (Compte de Soutien à l’Industrie des Programmes - COSIP) to all companies that earn their income via advertising revenue, from the exposure of audiovisual or cinematographic content. Another topic of major importance is the Commission’s recommendation to relax some of the provisions on audiovisual advertising, since it will not be possible to transpose all of them to connected television (authorised time limits for advertising, ban on advertising in favour of certain sectors of the economy, etc.). The Commission will therefore continue its work in 2013 and look to the implementation of its initial proposals.