Financial situation of local terrestrial TV channels in France in 2020

Preamble

Since the law of November 15, 2013 on the independence of public audiovisuel, the Authority has been required to report, in its activity report, on "the development and means of financing local television services". The purpose of this document is to meet this obligation. The data presented in this document were updated in April 2022.

This report for 2020 is based on the financial statements of 46 local terrestrial channels, including 35 licensed in mainland France and 11 in overseas France.

Only services authorized to broadcast on the terrestrial network from January 1 to December 31 of the year in question are included in this report. Channels that received their first authorization in the current year and those that ceased operations during the same period are therefore excluded.

54 local private channels were authorized for terrestrial diffusion from January 1 to December 31, 2020, including 42 in mainland France (stable on the previous year) and 12 in overseas France (compared with 16 in 2019). However, due to the special situation of several of these channels, we have decided not to include them in this 2020 report.

The financial review of local TV channels in mainland and overseas France helps to shed light on a sector sometimes faced with economically difficult situations.