French Superior Audiovisual Council opinion of June 14, 2011 on the draft decree on support for DTT diffusion of local channels in the French overseas territories

Opinion no. 2011-9 of June 14, 2011 on a draft decree on aid for the digital terrestrial broadcasting of free-to-air local television services in the French overseas territories

The French Superior Audiovisual Council, meeting in plenary session on June 14, 2011, was asked by the Government on May 17, 2011, to issue a favorable opinion on a draft decree to support the digital terrestrial broadcasting of free-to-air local television services from the French Overseas Territories.

Pursuant to article 173 of French Finance Act no. 2010-1657 of December 29, 2010, which introduced the financial aid, the draft decree defines the terms and conditions for granting this aid to local television service editors authorized for digital broadcasting under article 96 of the French Freedom of Communication Act of September 30, 1986, when their operating revenues are less than five million euros.

Local television services in overseas France which benefit from a right of takeover without a call for tenders, in application of article 96, are broadcast either in the Réseau OM 1 multiplex, a service distributor within the meaning of article 30-2 of the 1986 law, to which the Council has assigned the radioelectric resource required to show the programs concerned to the public, or on a "simplex" when the service editor is the sole holder of the right to use the resource assigned to him.

The degressive individual subsidy of up to €200,000, introduced by the 2010 law, enables the local channels concerned to meet the costs incurred by the transition to all-digital broadcasting over a transitional period of three years. The Conseil is pleased to note that its suggestion, made within the framework of the Comité Stratégique pour le Numérique, to pay a significant share from the first year, i.e. 90% of diffusion costs in 2011, has been taken into account by the draft decree.

However, the Conseil, anxious to safeguard media plurality, would like to see the local channels Zouk TV (Martinique) and Eclair TV (Guadeloupe), whose right to resume broadcasting after a call for tenders has been deferred due to a lack of space on the ROM 1 multiplex, and which will therefore only be able to broadcast in digital mode from December 2011, also benefit from the decree's provisions. Admittedly, these two channels will hardly have to bear the broadcasting costs inherent in dual broadcasting, in analog and digital modes, but the imperatives of safeguarding plurality and preserving the plurality of formats, principles affirmed by the law of September 30, 1986, justify the benefit of financial aid, adapted to their situation.

These services, authorized on a "simplex" basis, are the sole rights holders of the resource allocated to them, and are therefore not governed by the provisions of article 30-2 of the law of September 30, 1986. To enable these services, which are deferred broadcasting rights holders and do not fall within the scope of the draft decree, to meet their digital terrestrial broadcasting costs, the Conseil is proposing that each of them be granted degressive aid up to a maximum cumulative amount of 100,000 euros over two years. This aid would cover 90% of broadcasting costs, up to a maximum of 60,000 euros in 2012, and 70% of diffusion costs, up to a maximum of 40,000 euros, in 2013.

This notice will be published in the Journal officiel de la République française.

Paris, June 14, 2011.

For the French Superior Audiovisual Council :
Le président,
M. Boyon