Rapport annuel
Les annexes du rapport
Summary
CSA - Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel
Summary

Foreword

2013 - Continuity and Renewal of Regulation

Proposals for Legal and Regulatory Amendments

CSA key dates in 2013

CSA key figures in 2013

Broadcasting Industry Key Figures

 

Conseillers' (Board Members) Fields of specialization

 

Report on activities 2008 - summary

Foreword

The Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel's 2013 public report was adopted by the Board at plenary session on 12 March 2014.

Olivier Schrameck, président du CSAThe format and content of our annual report have been overhauled: the intent is to provide public authorities with improved information on our actions as regulator, and to highlight developments in our charges.

We have, therefore, elected to issue a report that would not only relate performance of our charges, in 2013, but would also serve as a starting point for conversation and exploration of the purposes and challenges of regulation.  The layout has been modified to this end: instead of detailing the work of each Conseil's Directorate in succession, we have organised our report around the primary objectives of regulation.  By focusing on issues rather than functions, we hope to shed better light on the meaning of the CSA's action.

This year's report is also a translation of new requirements introduced under the law of 15 November 2013, relating to public broadcasting independence.  With reformed status, processes, and powers, the CSA is a modernised institution; we wanted a congruous report.  The CSA is now a public independent authority, relying on an independent rapporteur to initiate sanction proceedings; it has also regained power to appoint the Chairs of public broadcasting companies.  At the same time as they reformed and strengthened the CSA's jurisdiction over both the public and private broadcasting industries, law-makers provided for the CSA's report to become an effective tool to assess and monitor regulation.  The report has, accordingly, been enriched in two main respects.

In terms of content, first, the report aims at giving better insight into economic issues at play in audiovisual communication.  It details the status of concentration in the industry, and steps taken in order to prevent threats to pluralism; it takes stock of the development and financing means of local television; and explains the impact, in particular from an economic standpoint, of airwave frequency allocation decisions.  This last point results from an extension of the Conseil's powers to manage radio-electric airwaves, as had been advocated by the Conseil in its previous report.

Second, as the report is now required to be publicly presented to the Assemblée nationale's and Sénat's committees in charge of cultural matters, its echo will reach further.  The specific link between regulator and Parliament, which I have favoured from the outset, is thereby enhanced.  Other contexts will also provide opportunities for further dialogue, in particular the release by the Conseil of its annual opinion relating to France Télévisions', Radio France's, and France Médias Monde's performance under their contrats d'objectifs et de moyens (objectives and means legal agreements) (COMs); hearing of the Conseil by the Commission de modernisation de la diffusion audiovisuelle (committee on audiovisual broadcasting modernisation) on the topic of frequency use and allocation will be another one.

The report has, therefore, been designed around the afore-mentioned enhanced legal bases, and will follow this new publication schedule.  It translates the Conseil's particularly intense activity, to which all staff members have contributed.  It presents the Conseil's working groups' actions, all marked by a spirit of openness and dialogue, as evidenced by the various consultation and partnership approaches taken, including several charters bringing together a large variety of institutions and economic players.  The report stresses that when the needs and constraints of economic operators, and the interests of creators and producers are taken onboard, it is always to the benefit of viewers and listeners that regulation is exercised.

From a more general perspective, the report is a reflection of the Conseil's contribution to the on-going conversation on the future of audiovisual regulation, especially as several important reports are to be issued over the course of the year, whose findings will inform the Government's preparation of a bill on new original content production.

In this spirit, and as done last year, under the requirement provided for in article 18 of the law of 30 September 1986, the Conseil draws the Government's attention to a set of possible amendments to laws and regulations deemed necessary, in the Conseil's analysis, in view of developments in the broadcasting industry.  Following the law of 15 November 2013, the proposals deal primarily with giving greater depth to the CSA's economic regulation charge, and with fostering digital players' free adherence, essentially through flexible approaches, to audiovisual communication regulation's fundamental objectives.  In fact, the Conseil believes broad-ranging reform of audiovisual regulation's scope and operation to be necessary, so as to fully and efficiently support the media's digital switch.

Modernisation along these lines necessarily implies adjustments to the European legal framework.  This was foreseen by law-makers, who provided for the Conseil's annual report to include a review of cooperation and convergence between European Union Member States' regulatory bodies.

It became apparent, upon first implementation, that this was a meaningful requirement, as the Conseil actively sought, in 2013, to improve cooperation and coordination between European regulators.  We welcomed announcement by the Commission, on 3 February 2014, of the creation of the European Regulators' Group for Audiovisual Media Services, in support of this approach.  It is an honour for me to have been appointed as Chair of the Group, until end of 2015.  It will provide European regulators with the opportunity to meet on a regular basis, exchange views on subjects of common interest, share experiences and practices, and collectively contribute to the European Commission's review of directives applicable to audiovisual media services.

These endeavours will help pave the way for a reform of audiovisual media regulation, proportionate with the tremendous opportunities open to the audiovisual industry, and the formidable challenges ahead.  The Conseil must continue to build closer and ever more trusting relationships with all audiovisual players in their wide variety, i.e., broadcasters, producers, and distributors, obviously; but also, creators, reporters, advertisers…This open frame of mind is put into practice by the Conseil in many different ways: through, an adversary-style process (principe du contradictoire) before any decisions are made, systematic consultations, and greater involvement with the comités territoriauxde l'audiovisuel and our European counterparts.

Working in this spirit of openness, the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel will continue to pursue full communication freedom, affirmation of the rule of law and of our social and cultural values, to the benefit of audiences and growth in the audiovisual industry.

Olivier Schrameck
Chairman

 

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