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The television duel

Commercial advertising will disappear from French Public television starting January 2009, the result of a reform which is now serving as a model elsewhere in Europe. Which debates animate the audiovisual landscape in France, Lithuania, Spain and Denmark?

The year 2008 saw a passionate discussion over media politics in France. On January 8, Nicolas Sarkozy announced a sweeping reform of public broadcasting. The principal changes included doing away with advertising on public television and having the head of France Télévisions group named directly by the president.

A voodoo doll with the logos of French public television channels at a demonstration against the reform of public broadcasting, November 2008, Paris. Photo: AP/ Jacques Brinon

In 2008 the reform went through several stages: A commission was created in February charged with implementing these objectives and proposing recommendations. In June the employees of France Télévisions called a strike in protest of the commission's proposals. Debate in the National Assembly over the bill started on November 25 and was promptly obstructed by the opposition. On December 17 the deputies voted to scrap advertising by 293 votes for the majority UMP against 242 for the opposition comprising the Socialist Party, the Democratic and Republican Left, the Communist Party and the Greens.

A contested reform

According to the government, the purpose of the reform is to alleviate public stations and attract viewers, as well as to allow French private channels to compete with major international groups. On December 1 Le Monde summed up in an editorial the points of contention in the reform: "In one month, once the reform being debated in parliament has been adopted, public television will pass under the control of the executive. … This means firstly that the presidents of France Télévisions and Radio France will be named, and perhaps revoked, during meetings of the Conseil des Ministres. … Secondly, the suppression of advertising … will place the public channels under the direct financial tutelage of the state. But this reform rides roughshod over practise and the upshot will be to closely control public television while strengthening the private stations, whose bosses, as everyone knows, are on close terms with the president."

The decision to have the president of the Republic name the head of France Télévisions, after consulting with the Superior Audiovisual Council – the body that currently nominates the presidents of the public television and radio broadcasters – and subject to the approval of a qualified majority of parliamentarians, sparked off numerous protests. Even some deputies in the majority spoke out against this aspect of the reform. As the Catholic daily La Croix wrote on November 27 2008: "Among the majority, the UMP deputy from the Aube (and former minister in the government of Dominique de Villepin) François Baroin pointed out that the new procedure for designating the president of France Télévisions would cast 'suspicion' on how the next presidential campaign was covered by public television. Baroin labelled the move a 'political mistake'." As the online edition of the weekly Le nouvel observateur reported on June 27 2008 the opposition also condemns the reform, calling it "a procedure worthy of Berlusconi", "a regression", and "a grave blow to the independence of the media".

Less money for public broadcasters

The reform of public broadcasting also envisages doing away with commercial advertising on the channels of France Télévisions along the line of developments in England, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and in part in Germany. In France this ban will go into partial effect as early as January 2009 (between 8 pm and 6 am) and then completely starting the end of 2011. The state has said it will cover the lack of advertising revenues by budgeting an equivalent sum, raising the money through new taxes on advertising on private channels and services provided by electronic communications operators. However the opposition and critics of the reform remain sceptical of the plan, which they say will result in arbitrary funding practises and long-term uncertainty. As the Swiss daily La Tribune de Genève wrote on November 25 2008, "the entire debate centres around the consistency of the state's engagements. Are they sufficient? How will they be honoured when the deputies of the majority have just recommended cutting the new taxes by half? What will happen afterwards? How to ensure the durability of such an arbitrary measure?"

For the opposition, cutting the new taxes amounts to a gift to private groups, in particular the Bouygues group, the majority shareholder in the private television channel TF1, whose chief executive Martin Bouygues is a close acquaintance of President Nicolas Sarkozy. The private channels are already the big winners of this reform since they will benefit from a "windfall effect", recuperating part of the public market. The French newspaper Libération also wrote that the public broadcasters lacked the funds they needed to develop new programmes and formats.

Over and above the impact on the budget of France Télévisions, stopping advertising revenues could impact other sectors, in particular the cinema. The cinema industry in France is largely dependent on the television stations, which finance film projects through broadcasting rights. As Le Monde wrote on December 10 2008: "The cinema industry is convinced that the public broadcasting bill will imperil the entire profession. … In France, television constitutes one of the principal resources of the cinema. … The channels have broadcasting obligations and the rights they pay allow production companies to initiate projects. If France Télévisions' budget takes a downward turn, cinema investment will plummet."

A model for the rest of Europe?

The project to stop advertising on public channels in France has reopened the question of financing for public television in Europe. Other countries are now reflecting on how to alleviate public television from commercial and advertising constraints while attracting viewers, as well as how to support big private groups in the competitive global market.

On December 2 2008 the Latvian newspaper Latvijas Avize wrote that the French reform project serves as an example: "Even if the way President Nicolas Sarkozy implements his ideas is not to everyone's liking, hardly anyone will question the need for a change of direction. In Europe the conviction is growing that it is a negative development for such central institutions as public television to be subject to the logic of the market and for them to wind up dependent on soap ads."

Spain similarly welcomes the French public broadcasting policy, in particular the advertising stop for public television stations. On October 23 2008 the daily La Vanguardia wrote that "this drastic and genuine change in the rules that govern broadcasting will take the pressure off state television in the battle for viewing ratings and with economic constraints. And because at the same time more money will flow into private television, the measure will lead to the formation of large private media groups who are in a position to compete on the international market. And this is precisely what the big nations of the European Union, including Spain, need. The French law is a major step forwards for European broadcasting."

Denmark, finally, faces the added problem that its public television station TV2 is on the verge of bankruptcy with debts equivalent to over 100 million euros. On October 21 2008 Berlingske Tidende stressed that a rescue plan is called for, but that it must be well thought out. The problem at hand is not simply financial, the paper wrote, but concerns the creativity, attractiveness and innovation of public media, particularly television: "It won't do any good to toss a coin to decide which subsidiaries are to be closed. A decision needs to be made once and for all about what we want to achieve with TV2. ... We need a strong TV2, and public media can survive - even in the current environment. But in view of the national austerity programme the media branch needs to be more creative." The power struggle between the public broadcaster and the political caste can't be resolved. Information or propaganda, independence or influence: the score of the TV debate is even.

Camille Petitot

Camille Petitot Guerin, born in 1984 in Nice, is a graduate of the Instituts d'Etudes Politiques in Toulouse and Strasbourg. She has also studied political ...
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