French Superior Audiovisual Council and Hadopi 2021 annual reports

It is of course with some emotion that I write these opening words to the latest activity report from the French Superior Audiovisual Council, which on January 1, 2022, after 32 years in existence, will make way for the French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication.

To prepare for this transition as effectively as possible, the French Superior Audiovisual Council's last year was rich in projects and concrete advances. It has enabled us to lay the foundations for the future of regulation.

1. First and foremost, we pursued major projects in our historic role of regulating audiovisual media, supporting the modernised broadcasting sector and the transformation of the industry. 2021 was a particularly symbolic year for the radio medium, which celebrated no less than three anniversaries: the hundredth anniversary of its creation, 120 years of associative status, and 40 years of the liberation of the airwaves. The French Superior Audiovisual Council, in conjunction with operators and the Ministry of Culture, also organized the first Radio Festival. Significant progress was also made on DAB+ deployment, with two multiplexes deployed in the autumn on theParis-Lyon-Marseille route. By the end of 2021, 40% of the population in mainland France will be covered by digital terrestrial radio.

In the television sector, a number of projects and regulatory changes were introduced during the year, in a more general context of technological and usage upheavals. The French Superior Audiovisual Council began investigating the proposed merger between the TF1 and M6 groups, and closely monitored the changes of control announced in the audiovisual industry. The rules governing audiovisual media's obligations to invest in audiovisual creation have been modernised. The "TNT" and "cabsat" decrees applicable to TV channels were revised to adapt them to the structural developments underway. The regulator closely monitored these reforms and issued detailed opinions on the draft texts concerned.

This modernised the regulation of on-demand audiovisual media services (ADMS), with the publication on June 22 of the decree transposing the European directive on audiovisual media services. In application of this new manager, the French Superior Audiovisual Council has proceeded with the agreement and notification of the obligations of the main international video-on-demand services established outside our territory but whose film and audiovisual supply includes the French market, in order to make them contribute as of 2021. This is an essential step forward in modernising the scheme for financing creation.

2. In 2021, we have also pursued and strengthened our commitment to on-air plurality, freedom of communication and social cohesion. We are constantly vigilant in our efforts to ensure on-air control, rigorous reporting, respect for the principle of political plurality and the guarantee of freedom of communication in the audiovisual media. Last year was marked in particular by the regional elections and the New Caledonian referendum, which were closely monitored by French Superior Audiovisual Council teams, and by the publication of our notice on October 6 with a view to the 2022 presidential election. Our competencies in the field of social cohesion have, for their part, been extended with the Loi Climate and Resilience Law of August 21, 2021, which makes provision for the conclusion, under the aegis of the regulator, of voluntary commitment charters by online advertising operators in order to contribute to the ecological transition.

The regulator's action in favor of media and information education has also intensified, notably in the territorial audiovisual committees, and led to the publication in the autumn ofa first report taking stock of publishers' actions in this priority area. Last but not least, we strengthened our efforts to protect our audiences, especially youngsters, with the successful conclusion of the protocol on digital parenting and the first-ever injunction issued against sites that failed to guarantee access by persons under 18 to pornographic content.

3. 2021 was also a pivotal year for us in terms of online platform regulation. First, the French Superior Audiovisual Council published the second assessment of the application of the law of December 22, 2018, which imposes means and transparency obligations on content platforms to fight agains information manipulation. The Council has maintained a close relationship with these players to best prepare for the election period. Our exchanges with our European counterparts, notably within the ERGA framework, continued throughout the year to make a close contribution to the draft texts put forward by the Commission, in particular the legislation on digital services (DSA) and the legislation on digital markets (DMA). In the field of fighting online hate, our competences have been complemented by the law of August 24, 2021 reinforcing respect for the principles of the Republic. Lastly, our mission to protect the public, including and especially youngsters, in the digital sphere took concrete form with the formal notice issued to five pornographic sites failing to abide by the legal obligation to prevent access by persons under 18 to their content, in accordance with the law of July 30, 2020 aimed at protecting victims of domestic violence. The French Superior Audiovisual Council has also signed the Government's memorandum of understanding on digital parenting, to raise awareness of the dangers of children's exposure to screens, in line with our information campaigns and our action on youth signage.

4. Last but not least, 2021 proved to be a year of profound change for the institution. The College of the French Superior Audiovisual Council was partially renewed, due to the deadlines set by law, but also to the sudden and tragic death of Michèle Léridon, unanimously appreciated within the French Superior Audiovisual Council and far beyond by all her fellow journalists and former colleagues at AFP. Her death has deeply affected us all.

Three new members joined us last year: Benoît Loutrel, Juliette Théry and Anne Grand d'Esnon. The organization of our services has also been revamped, notably with the creation of an online platforms department.

Of course, the top priority for 2021 was the preparation of Arcom, with intense prefiguration work carried out in a rich and trusting dialogue with the supreme authority for the distribution and protection of intellectual property on internet, whose president, Monique Zerbib, I would like to thank. The passing of the law of October 25, 2021 on the regulation and protection of access to cultural works in the digital age brought the French Superior Audiovisual Council and Hadopi closer together, and provided the legislative basis for the missions of the new regulator, Arcom.

So, 2021 was a year of major transformations, but also of projection into the future. In this respect, I would like to thank all the members and teams of the French Superior Audiovisual Council for this extremely rich report, which is undoubtedly the finest tribute we could pay to our former home.

Since January 1, 2022, Arcom has been deploying its new missions within the audiovisual industry and in the digital sphere, embodying a renewed model of regulation that listens to the industry and its citizens, and is in tune with the rapid developments taking place in the industry. It's an exciting and challenging new chapter for the industry and the regulator.

Roch-Olivier Maistre

Hadopi was created on June 12, 2009: preceded by stormy debates and behind-the-scenes theatrics, this first act set the scene for a new institution with ambitious and controversial missions.

Very quickly, the cultural piracy scene was transformed, and the role assigned to Hadopi proved to be limited in the face of developments in usage. The gallery of its detractors, not content to stand behind the curtain, rejoiced, and Hadopi disappointed its most loyal audience. L'acte II de l'exception culturelle, the report submitted by Pierre Lescure to the then President of the Republic, opens as Hadopi's last. L'Hadopi, c'est fini" ("Hadopi, it's over"), was the precipitous headline, to describe what, in the absence of a new board and a renewed budget, was shaping up to be a slow agony. Neither abolished nor preserved, the quantum protagonist of a plot that is more absurd than tragic, Hadopi has chosen not to wait and to take its freedom as Montesquieu described it: "the right to do what the law permits".

This spirit has guided the institution's actions for several years. It has performed a dynamic interpretation of its legal missions to give the law its full effect. It has endeavored to implement them, always seeking the right balance between protecting the rights of creators and those of users. Within the framework set by the legislator, but against a backdrop of constant revolution, its teams have researched, invented and developed. Through it all, they have deployed unique technical and legal expertise, recognized in France and abroad, agile working methods, a highly personal commitment to the missions they defend and, I believe, an extra soul that drives them and binds them together. And then, at the dawn of its first decade of action, buoyed by bold governance, the supreme authority for the distribution and protection of intellectual property on internet finally returned from afar. It had responded to the threat with effective action and fulfilled the mission entrusted to it by the legislature: to protect creative works on the Internet and contribute to their diffusion.

It has acted against cultural piracy by implementing the two aspects of the graduated response - one educational, then when education no longer works, that of criminal proceedings - by developing awareness-raising initiatives to raise awareness of copyright challenges, by supporting the development of legal supplies, and by providing professionals and rights holders with detailed studies that regularly enable the detection of emerging uses. Since 2009, Hadopi has been listening closely to developments in its environment, to ensure that online culture is better shared by and with the public.

Interested in the solutions proposed elsewhere in the world, it has taken the time to devise regulation schemes that are likely to better ensure the protection of works in the digital universe. These methods of regulation, all of which have been chosen by the legislature to develop its new scenario for protecting online creation, will breathe new life into the actions of the public authority.

Act 3 is, in the narrative structure, that of resolution. The time when the protagonist fails or succeeds. Hadopi's missions have been preserved and its means strengthened: who would have thought? The third act of Hadopi is the creation of Arcom. The deus ex machina, coming from the legislator with new tools to put the protection of creation and its diffusion on the Internet at the forefront. Proudly and emotionally committed to the success of this latest performance, I entrust my teams to the new regulator. Arcom, now in the spotlight, can count on their willingness to work alongside French Superior Audiovisual Council staff, under the authority of the College and its Chairman, to contribute to a renewed ambition for audiovisual and digital regulation in France.

I'm convinced that this happy legislative outcome will also reflect the laws of physics as stated by Newton: "When two forces are joined, their effectiveness is dubbed".

Monique Zerbib