CSA's key 2008 figures

During the 60 plenary sessions it held, le CSA rendered 8 opinions to the government and 3 to the Conseil de la concurrence (competition council); it issued 1 deliberation to the attention of the editors and 3 recommendations relating to elections; it held 38 hearings.

Radio

The Conseil completed 15 FM general or partial calls for tenders; in mainland France, it assigned 1,457 frequencies, renewed the licenses of 106 stations without calls for tenders and issued 336 licenses to temporary radio stations; in outre-mer (overseas départements and territoires), it awarded licenses to 104 stations and renewed the licenses of 10 others; it launched a call for tenders for digital radio as part of which 377 applicants were deemed admissible; it entered into 1 new convention (legal agreement) and received 2 déclarations (registrations) in relation to radio services other than over the air (hertziens).

Television

Furthering the extension of DTT broadcasting, the Conseil authorized broadcasting by 145 new transmitters and 5 high definition channels; Following the public consultation it had opened on the conditions in which the switch-off of terrestrial analog television is to take place, it forwarded guidelines to the prime minister and issued at the end of the year an opinion on the national scheme for analog switch-off and digital switch-over; it issued a report to the government regarding the introduction of DTT in outre-mer.

The Conseil authorized 6 local analog channels to broadcast in digital mode; it launched 3 series of calls for tenders, held 38 hearings and launched 1 public consultation regarding licenses to be awarded to new local digital televisions; it entered into 17 new conventions (legal agreements) and received 27 déclarations (registrations) for television services other than over the air (hertziens).

Regarding mobile television, the Conseil selected 13 private channels, selected 3 public channels and launched 1 public consultation regarding interactive services.

The Conseil issued 50 mises en demeure (formal notices), initiated 10 penalty proceedings and issued 3 penalties following various breaches by operators.

40 foreign delegations were welcomed.

For the first time in 2008, the number of direct visitors to www.csa.fr, the Conseil’s website, decreased whereas uses of RSS feeds increased by over 440%. The number of pages accessed went from 17 million to 45 million and the average visit time from 10 to 14 minutes. On average, 591 messages were sent to the Conseil every month via the website – from 714 in 2007. The decrease may be explained by the richer information provided on the website regarding digital terrestrial television broadcasting, one of the most frequently chosen subjects of the site’s users, and by the fact that, conversely to last year, no major elections took place.