Abolition of advertising on TV public channels

Résumé du document

The French government is working on a bill which is supposed to be subjected to the Parliament and voted before summer 2008. This bill aims to the abolition of advertising on TV public channels of the France Televisions group.

Actually, on January 17, 2008 the French President Sarkozy announced: “I would like a television public utility which have to be really different from private channels. One of the means to differentiate the television public utility is to avoid audience and profit researches.”

According to Mrs Christine Albanel, the Minister of culture, the aim of this shake-up was not to clone ‘Arte' (A French-German channel without advertising) and the choice of the France Télévisions CEO, Mr Patrick De Carolis, since the end of 2007 to privilege quality than quantity through a barometer is a good tool.

Extraits

[...] This bill aims to the abolition of advertising on TV public channels of the France Télévisions group. Actually, on January the French President Sarkozy announced: would like a television public utility which have to be really different from private channels. One of the means to differentiate the television public utility is to avoid audience and profit researches.” According to Mrs Christine Albanel, the Minister of culture, the aim of this shake-up was not to clone ‘Arte' French-German channel without advertising) and the choice of the France Télévisions CEO, Mr Patrick De Carolis, since the end of 2007 to privilege quality than quantity through a barometer is a good tool. [...]

[...] Television-viewer's opinion According to a survey made by IPSOS in January 2007 and published in “Télé 7 jours”, we could notice these results: Concerning the suppression of advertising: 50% of interrogated people are against and 45% are pro; 51% think that TV programs will not change the contrary; 32% think that quality will decrease think quality will increase; 70% are against more advertising on TF1 or M6 to finance public utility are pro. Concerning the possibility to pay an extra-tax in order to finance TV public channels, what could be the maximum amount people would pay per year? 30% answer 0 29% answer between 1 and 4 16% answer up to 50 The fact is that many television-viewers plebiscite Arte but they all watch TF1. Few people do not want advertising on public channels ant the majority is against its suppression. [...]

[...] So, BBC takes care of its production of TV programs like France Télévisions but with more capacities. The most important difference between BBC and France Télévisions is the structural organisation whereas France Télévisions has a centralized head office. BBC is totally divided in 5 main departments which are for example: BBC News which regroups all national channels on TV, radio and internet including the famous BBC World which is seen by more than 100 million people all around the world. [...]

[...] The Government has pledged to make up the shortfall through state funding, but television executives are sceptical after Mr Sarkozy ruled out an increase in the annual licence fee. So, the abolition of advertising on public channels will represent a loss of earnings of about million, forcing France Télévisions to find ways to fill the gap and re-think their means of financing. Furthermore, suppressing advertising on public channels will mean that there will be 3 hours 15 minutes free per day. France Télévisions will have to finance new programs to fill this free time. [...]

[...] Indeed BBC gets 5.1 billion of resources when all French TV channels funds reach only 3.3 billion. To conclude, it is obvious that there are not a lot of supporters for this project. We can say that the only one who will principally benefit from the abolition of advertising will be private channels. Many politics are against this proposition, like Laurent Fabius who thinks that it is a gift given by Nicolas Sarkozy to the private channels, and in particular to Martin Bouygues. [...]