Decree no. 2003-620 of July 4, 2003, as amended, on the breakdown and pre-financing of the cost of frequency upgrades.

Décret n°2003-620 du 4 juillet 2003 pris pour l'application de l'article 30-1 de la loi n°86-1067 du 30 septembre 1986 et relatif à la répartition et au préfinancement du coût des réaménagements des fréquences

modified by :

Decree no. 2009-1308 of October 26, 2009 (JO of October 28, 2009)

Article 1
Digital terrestrial television service editors holding an authorization to use the radioelectric resource issued on the basis of article 30-1 of the aforementioned law of September 30, 1986, or a right of use under article 26 of the same law, bear the full cost of the frequency upgrades required to show these services.

TITLE ONE
The cost of frequency upgrades and its breakdown

CHAPTER I
Defining the cost of frequency upgrades

Article 2
The cost referred to in Article 1 includes :
1° - Expenses arising from technical operations relating to installations for broadcasting terrestrial television services in analog mode;
2° - Expenditure arising from coordinated operations to ensure continuity of reception of the programs of the services mentioned in 1° above, in particular expenditure linked to informing viewers about the new frequencies and to the intervention of service providers in private homes, including for the reorientation of antennas or the equipment of schemes enabling the reception of the television services in question by terrestrial broadcasting in digital mode, in order to avoid substitutions of broadcasting frequencies;
3° - The costs of coordinating spectrum reorganization operations, in particular the operating expenses of the economic interest group that may be set up in application of article 7.

Chapter II

Breakdown of frequency reorganization costs

Article 3

The expenses and costs incurred by terrestrial broadcasting services in analog mode to enable the diffusion of personal mobile television services are distributed half-yearly in equal shares among the editors' who have an authorization or a right of use on the date of the breakdown.

Article 4

The expenses and costs incurred by terrestrial broadcasting services in analog mode to enable the diffusion of terrestrial broadcasting services in digital mode, other than personal mobile television services, are distributed half-yearly among the editors of these services who have an authorization or a right of use on the date of the breakdown, according to the following terms and conditions:
1° When the geographical area in which a service has been authorized covers less than 50% of the inventoried population of in mainland France, the contribution payable by the service editor is equal to one thirty-third of the total amount of expenses and fees multiplied by the ratio between the inventoried population of the geographical area in which the service is authorized and the inventoried population of mainland France;
2° When the geographical area in which a service has been authorized covers at least 50% of the surveyed population of mainland France, the total amount of expenses and fees less the contributions payable by the service editors mentioned in 1° is divided equally between the editors of national services for each of their authorized services.

Article 5

For the application of articles 3 and 4, when these services are shown on the same radioelectric resource on a time-sharing basis, they are counted as a single service, and the sum allocated to them is then divided in full between them in proportion to the diffusion time they receive.
For the application of article 4, a digital terrestrial television service editor who has an authorization or right of use to show the same service simultaneously in standard definition and high definition is considered as a separate service editor for the breakdown of expenses and costs incurred by analog terrestrial television services.

TITLE II

Pre-financing of part of redevelopment expenditure by the spectrum redevelopment fund

Chapter I
Terms and conditions of pre-financing

Article 6
Pre-financing of part of the cost of the expenses and charges mentioned in Article 2 may be provided on behalf of digital terrestrial television broadcasters by the Fonds de réaménagement du spectre, managed by the Agence nationale des fréquences.

Article 7
Only expenses incurred by an economic interest group governed by the provisions of articles L. 251-1 to L. 251-23 of the French Commercial Code and created within two months of the publication of the present decree by several terrestrial analog television service editors in order to coordinate the implementation of the redevelopment operations for which they are responsible, are taken into account for pre-financing.

Article 8
At the request of the economic interest group, and after consultation with digital terrestrial television broadcasters, the Board of Directors of the Agence Nationale des Fréquences will determine the expenses and costs of operations required to implement redevelopment decisions taken by the French Superior Audiovisual Council, which are covered by the Spectrum Redevelopment Fund.

Article 9
Each quarter, the Fonds de réaménagement du spectre grants the economic interest grouping a financial advance corresponding to the estimated expenses to be pre-financed for the current month and the following two months. It reimburses the expenses incurred by the economic interest group, subject to proof of service rendered, if they exceed the amount of the advance granted. If this advance exceeds the expenses incurred by the economic interest group, the difference will be deducted from the advance allocated for the following quarter.

Chapter II

Conditions for repayment to the Spectrum Redevelopment Fund

Article 10
Repayment of the pre-financing granted under the terms of Chapter 1 is due on January 1 of the year following the date set by decision of the French Superior Audiovisual Council for the effective launch of digital terrestrial broadcasting by national television service editors.

Article 11
This reimbursement is spread over a period of five years. The amount due on January 1 of each year is equal to one-fifth of the repayment amount.

TITLE III

Financing of subsequent frequency reorganization expenses

Article 12
Expenditure and costs incurred by an economic interest group in excess of the pre-financed portion of the cost of redevelopment operations as defined in article 6 may be the subject of a financial advance from the Fonds de réaménagement du spectre under the conditions set out in articles 8 and 9.

Article 13
At June 30 and December 31, the Board of Directors of the Agence Nationale des Fréquences shall determine the amount of expenditure actually incurred during the previous six-month period. It distributes this amount among digital terrestrial television broadcasters according to the criteria defined in articles 3 to 5. The agency notifies each publisher of the amount due. The corresponding sums are payable within one month.

TITLE IV

Final provisions

Article 14
The sums payable by service editors in application of articles 6 to 13 shall be recovered in accordance with the procedures laid down in Chapter I of Title II of Part Three of Decree no. 62-1587 of December 29, 1962 on the general regulations governing public accounting.

Article 15
A subsequent decree will set the conditions for application of the present schemes in overseas France and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, as well as in New Caledonia, the territories of French Polynesia and the Wallis and Futuna Islands, and in the departmental authority of Mayotte.

Article 16
The Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry, the Minister for Culture and Communication, the Minister Delegate for the Budget and Budgetary Reform and the Minister Delegate for Industry are each responsible for the execution of this decree, which will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic.