Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel – le site du CSA

The Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel

An Independent Authority to Protect Audiovisual Communication Freedom

The tour Mirabeau,
head office of the CSA in Paris

The Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA) was established by the President of the French Republic on 13 February 1989 and entrusted with the double-pronged mission of guaranteeing and promoting audiovisual communication freedom in France. Having succeeded the Haute Autorité de la communication audiovisuelle and the Commission nationale de la communication et des libertés, the CSA is the third audiovisual regulatory authority to have been created in France.

The foundation for the Conseil’s actions is the Law of 30 September 1986, amended many times since. The far-reaching responsibilities given to the Conseil under the Law include, monitoring respect of the principles of pluralism and honesty of information; organizing radio and television electoral campaigns; allocating frequencies to the various operators; watching the frequency bands of the spectrum allocated to television and radio; setting rules on broadcasting content; guaranteeing the respect of human dignity; and, protecting children. The Conseil is also in charge of ensuring that the French language and culture are protected and showcased on the air (« défense et illustration de la langue et de la culture françaises »).

The Conseil has two essential further missions: making television accessible to all, in particular, to deaf or hearing-impaired persons; and, making sure audiovisual media reflect the diversity of French society. The media have a responsibility to present an image reflecting the reality of today’s France and to combat discriminations. The Observatoire de la diversité has been established by the Conseil as a dedicated tool to assess policies implemented by television channels in this respect.

Election after election and change of Government after change of Government, the CSA’s regulatory role in achieving sufficient political balance on television and radio for each and everyone to be able to identify with them, has been steady and is widely acknowledged.

Communication freedom is at the heart of the CSA’s raison d’être and it is not an empty phrase. One of the primary rules applied by the Conseil is diversity, in terms of both, audiovisual supply, and operators. The media represent a means of expression that must be as widely open as possible. The Conseil keeps a watchful eye on this absolute democratic necessity.

Freedom comes with responsibilities, however. A large part of the CSA’s work is to verify that both radio and television broadcasters are being responsible in their programming. Communication is different from any other activity in that, messages of a certain nature may cause serious harm to certain persons receiving them, where such persons are unprepared for them. When it comes to audiovisual communication, freedom may only be effectively exercised if, and when, children’s interests are respected. Since 1996, and at the behest of the CSA, French television channels have implemented a youth-suitable rating system widely acknowledged as being well-designed and successful.

The rating system has enabled responsibilities to be shared jointly between broadcasters and viewers and neither can, any longer, be unaware of the violent or shocking nature of what they air or choose to watch or not watch. In addition, the Conseil organizes a communication campaign aired on all channels once a year to raise parent awareness.

The Conseil strives to take the changing economic reality of the audiovisual industry into account and has done so since inception. Gradually, over the years, it has designed a brand new approach in French governmental tradition: that of seeing regulation as régulation, as opposed to réglementation, i.e., a kind of regulation that, favors consultation over coercion, is attentive to the development requirements of an ever-changing industry, and adapts to, and supports, the changes undergone by radio and television operators. The Conseil’s economic regulation pursues a double objective. First, maintaining the balance between the French audiovisual industry’s three poles, i.e., the public audiovisual service, the large private groups and the rich fabric of SMEs specialized in creation and technology, and helping them develop in the context of growing international competition. Second, envisioning what the long term benefits for society could be, from an economic, social, and cultural perspective. The Conseil’s economic regulation is based on, the anti-trust provisions in the Law of 30 September 1986; the opinions it, itself, renders to the Autorité de la concurrence (competition authority); and finally, on its authority to settle disputes that may arise, in particular between distributors and broadcasters.

The Conseil surveys, possible necessary changes to existing laws and regulations; the impacts of European integration; and the reinforcement of French cultural expression. Whenever the need arises, the CSA approaches the Government about amending the legal framework applicable to French audiovisuals, so as to address the far-reaching technological and industrial changes facing the industry at an ever-increasing pace.

The importance of the CSA’s work is obvious when looking at the French FM band. More than 4,000 frequencies are allocated to private radio stations, thereby making France one of the world’s leading countries in the number of local radio stations, and in particular, of non-profit ones. Their diversity and numbers are the result of a well-balanced regulation that guarantees supply variety. The same is true of French television. Over the years, the CSA has enabled the large incumbent broadcasters to develop, authorized the creation of numerous local analog channels, and guided the development of a large number of theme channels now available on several networks and by satellite. More recently and in-keeping with technological change, the CSA has initiated the launch of digital terrestrial television (DTT) in France. This large-scale endeavor to turn the French audiovisual industry into a fully digitized one was initiated in March 2005, and is continuing today. The number of new local television channels created continues to increase every day and, soon, high-definition, mobile television and digital radio will be available.

DTT currently offers 18 free-to-air national channels (in the MPEG 2 standard) and 9 pay ones (in the MPEG 4 standard). Since the end of 2008, 87% of the population of metropolitan France has had access to it. The Conseil is careful to avoid any geographical divide as it furthers the deployment of DTT. The objective under the law is to reach 95% of the French population by the end of 2011. However, the Conseil has added the further objective of reaching at least 91% of the population of each département, so that no part of the territory is left by the wayside.

DTT’s extension meets with great expectations on the part of the French viewers. Won over by the variety of the channels available, they buy the necessary equipment in increasing numbers, for both off-air and satellite reception.

The implementation of DTT has been designed by the Conseil, since the origin of the project, as a means to enable the development of local television channels, whose numbers were low compared to other countries. At first, 18 local channels received an authorization to broadcast in digital, when they were previously only available in analog, and an additional 7 new local channels were created in the Île-de-France region. In early 2009, 35 local channels were broadcasting and calls for tenders (appels à candidatures) were under way, so that their number may rapidly exceed fifty.

The Conseil has also initiated the gradual introduction of high definition (HD), the future format of television. The revolutionary image quality is anxiously anticipated by both the operators and the viewers. Since October 2008, viewers can watch several channels broadcasting (in the MPEG 4 standard) programs shot in real HD.

In 2008, the Conseil wrote the birth certificates of two other major innovations part of digital switch-over: mobile television which, in the future, will bring numerous television channels to handheld devices in excellent image quality, and digital radio (in the T-DMB format) whose launch will be effective no later than by the end of 2009 in Paris, Marseille and Nice and be subsequently extended to the entire territory following an extended consultation of operators. The selection will be enriched, the number of stations will gradually increase in all regions, and certain stations will, in the end, reach true national coverage. New services will also be available including much greater interactivity.

In mid-2009, the Conseil also launched two public consultations: one regarding possible uses for resource released by two no-longer broadcasting pay DTT channels, and one regarding the conditions for the deployment of new interactive applications and of on-demand audiovisual media services.

The Conseil plays an essential role in the on-going digital revolution, side by side with the operators. In the Conseil’s view, the digital revolution testifies to the dynamism of the French audiovisual industry as one that has fully embraced investment in new technology development. This, in turn, should have a beneficial impact for France from a social, a cultural and an economic perspective.