Search results : 1106

The public-service television company France Télévisions has just adopted a “Channels Charter”. Its Chairman and Managing Director, Rémy Pflimlin, claims it is the first to be drawn up by an audiovisual group in France. Public-sector television has a particular role to play in the country’s democratic life as well as in its social and cultural life - on the basis of this idea, the France Télévisions group wanted to define the fundamental principles that ought to determine the course of its action and that of its employees. The text recalls the “ethical rules” and the “public-service missions” required...

During the summer, the Conseil d’Etat received an application under the urgent procedure from Edonys, the international television channel devoted to wine, represented by Media Place Partners, which had been refused a broadcasting convention at the end of March 2011. The channel wishes to broadcast discussions and documentaries on the wine sector and to propose interactive tastings. However, this is not allowed under the “Evin Act” which bans all direct or indirect advertising in favour of alcohol (as stated in Article L. 3323-2 of the Public Health Code). Edonys called for the suspension of performance...

On 31 August 2006 the Ministry for the Economy and Finance gave the green light for the merger of the satellite television platforms CanalSat (Canal Plus, Vivendi Group) and TPS, the two major operators in the pay television market in France (see IRIS 2006-8/22). In view of the extensive risk of harm to competition, this authorisation - issued after obtaining the opinion of the competition council (Conseil de la concurrence) - was made subject to the implementation of 59 undertakings on the part of Vivendi Universal and the Canal Plus group. The operation, which resulted in the creation of the...

Compensatory channels, or “bonus channels”, were awarded to the “historic” operators (TF1, M6 and Canal+) by the 2007 “Television of the Future” Act (see IRIS 2007-3/20) to compensate for the prejudice suffered as a result of the early stoppage of their broadcasting in analog mode and the appearance of competitor channels on digital TV. Since the switch to all-digital was scheduled for November 2011, these compensatory channels could theoretically start broadcasting next month. Except for the fact that in December 2010 the European Commission began infringement proceedings against France in respect...

At long last the repressive part of the HADOPI legislation has now been finalised. The arrangements, set up by the Act of 12 June 2009 and supplemented by the Act of 28 October 2009, attempt to combat the illegal downloading of works by introducing ‘a graduated response”. The first stage is in the hands of the HADOPI, an independent administrative authority with responsibility for sending warning messages to Internet users using peer-to-peer systems whose IP addresses have been collected by the authorised rights management societies. For the second stage, the Constitutional Court censured the HADOPI’s...