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The Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (national audiovisual regulatory authority - CSA) has just published its reply to the consultation launched in November 2008 by the European Commission on its draft revised Communication on the application of State aid rules to public service broadcasters. The evolution of the audiovisual market and its legal environment has made it necessary to update the 2001 Communication. According to the Commission, the main elements of discussion are the greater leeway allowed to the public-sector broadcasting bodies to take up the challenges of the new media environment,...

Orange (a subsidiary of France Telecom) has just been ordered by the commercial court in Paris to suspend its exclusivity for the broadcasting of certain football matches on its channel Orange Sport. Last August, having spent EUR 203 million on acquiring the exclusivity of some of the rights for broadcasting premier league football during the period from 2008 to 2012 (including one premium broadcast, the Saturday night match live), Orange launched its channel Orange Foot (renamed Orange Sports in January). The channel’s offer, comprising linear, non-linear and interactive services, is offered...

In April 2007 the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (audiovisual regulatory authority - CSA) called for a charter to set the framework for the participation of minors in television broadcasts (see IRIS 2007-6: 11). A charter has now been drawn up, and the CSA published the text on 22 January 2009. It applies to broadcasts other than cinematographic and audiovisual works of fiction, and will be appended to the authorisations signed by those in parental authority. As the CSA recalls, “in order to take into account the particular sensitivity and vulnerability of minors and to respect the child’s...

It will be remembered that just a year ago a surprising judgment was handed down by the court of appeal in Paris in a dispute between participants in the tele-reality programme called L’Ile de la Tentation and the programme’s producer. By upholding the candidates’ claims (and awarding each of them EUR 27,000 in compensation in passing), the court stated clearly that the contract between the production company and the participants had all the features of an employment contract, such that the rules governing irregular breaking of the contract also applied (see IRIS 2008-4: 13). Note should therefore...

The court of appeal in Amiens has just delivered an interesting order on a delicate point of law. The facts were as follows: after four days of debate before the criminal court of the Somme, when the judge and jury had withdrawn to deliberate, a journalist covering the case for a television channel noticed that the deliberation room was reflected in the glass building opposite. The journalist in question took the initiative of filming this reflection, thereby making it possible to view the deliberation process (which is theoretically secret) and more particularly two members of the jury voting...