Opinion no. 2014-12 of July 30, 2014 on a draft decree relating to the Agence nationale des fréquences (ANFR) and amending the code des postes et des communications électroniques.

Seized by the Government on July 10, 2014, pursuant to Article 9 of Law no. 86-1067 of September 30, 1986, of a draft decree relating to the Agence nationale des fréquences (ANFR) and amending the code des postes et des communications électroniques, aimed at completing the Agency's missions concerning the allocation of aid to viewers to ensure continuity of reception of television services, the French Superior Audiovisual Council, meeting on July 30, 2014, issued the following opinion.

With regard to II of Article¹ and Article 2 of the draft decree, the Council is in favor of the draft amendment to Articles R. 20-44-11 and R. 20-44-14 of the French Post and Electronic Communications Code, which assigns ANFR the mission of participating in the continuity of reception by viewers of television services authorized by terrestrial hertzian means in digital mode. This amendment will ensure the continuity of the scheme for the reception of television services.

However, in accordance with article 22 of law no. 86-1067 of September 30, 1986, which stipulates that "the French Superior Audiovisual Council and the Agence Nationale des Fréquences shall take the necessary measures to ensure the proper reception of signals, and shall enter into the necessary agreements with each other for this purpose", the Conseil proposes that the words "subject to the missions of the French Superior Audiovisual Council" be added to article¹, II of the draft legislation.

Furthermore, the Council notes that the draft text before it makes provision for the conditions of implementation of ANFR's new mission to be "set by decree". The Conseil regrets that it has not been informed of this draft decree, and hopes that these provisions will be adopted as soon as possible, so that the scheme ensuring continuity of reception of television services by viewers can be maintained.

However, the Council remains very concerned about the financing of this scheme, which is not guaranteed, either from the Fonds d'aménagement du numérique (FAN) or from ANFR's working capital.

This aid scheme is essential, in particular, for the smooth roll-out of the new digital terrestrial television multiplexes up to June 2015, but also, and more sustainably, for the monitoring of chronic reception difficulties. It meets the high expectations of users and their elected representatives, on whose behalf they regularly make representations to the Council.

The Council would like to see the conditions for implementing this scheme, as set out in Decree no. 2007-957 of May 5, 2007, maintained, so as to ensure continuity of television services for households in individual or collective dwellings, in principal or secondary residences, in the event of interference linked to foreign broadcasts, or in the event of loss of reception following decisions by the Council. Such decisions, which require DTT channels to change frequencies, may result in some households losing reception, due to the random nature of radio wave propagation. In addition, the Conseil considers that it would be desirable to extend the benefits of this scheme to local authorities benefiting from a retransmitter authorization in accordance with article 30-3 of the law of September 30, 1986, and obliged to carry out technical modifications following the implementation of Conseil decisions taken by way of enforcement of articles 22, 25, 26 and 30-1 of the law.

This extension to all the above-mentioned beneficiaries seems to the Board to be just as desirable for areas experiencing chronic interference phenomena (notably due to exceptional propagation or irreducible "iso-frequency" interference).

With regard to Article 4, the Council proposes that it also refer to II of Article¹ and Article 2, so that the scheme to ensure continuity of television services is applicable in the islands of Wallis and Futuna, French Polynesia, New Caledonia and the French Southern and Antarctic Lands, as made provision for in the decree of March 5, 2007.

The other schemes set out in the draft decree do not summon any comments from the Board.