Massive strike by public audiovisual sector
Yesterday - for the first time since 1974 - employees in the French public audiovisual sector (France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5, INA, RFI, TV5 Monde and Radio France) led a widely followed and cohesive strike through the streets in a protest against plans to ban advertising on state television channels as of 2009.
This proposal – which was announced unexpectedly and in a rather unconsidered fashion by the President (see news) - has prompted various concerns. A total of €1.2bn will in fact be necessary to finance the measure. This includes the €800m in advertising revenues currently earned by the France Télévisions group and an estimated €400m for the production of programmes set to replace the advertising slots.
In the absence of any political will to increase TV license fees, the government’s initial suggestions (taxation on the additional advertising revenues earned by private TV channels, charges to Internet and mobile telephone operators and revenues from TV sales) do not seem suitable solutions for guaranteeing the stability and future of the public sector. The threat of privatisation is thus felt despite denials from the government, which has promised future financing equal to current levels and identical scope.
Beyond the 11,000 employees from France Télévisions, concerns have now spread to film and audiovisual producers. For France Télévisions are currently obliged to pre-finance European films using 3.2% of their turnover (€52.9m in 2007 for 51 French features co-produced and pre-bought) and they pledged to broadcast 360 films per year on France 2 and France 3. A new agreement signed in December 2007 was set to increase financing to 3.5% of turnover by 2010 and the number of films broadcast to a minimum of 420.
Moreover, the three films currently in competition at the Berlin Film Festival were backed financially by France 3 Cinéma. Robert Guédiguian’s Lady Jane [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] received €800,000 in funding (out of a total budget of €4.1m); Erick Zonca’s Julia [+see also:
trailer
film profile] obtained €1.1m (of a total €6.5m); and Philippe Claudel’s I’ve Loved You So Long [+see also:
trailer
film profile] received €850,000 (of a total €6.7m).
(Translated from French)
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