Arcom's new missions

Financing and promoting audiovisual and cinematic production

Arcom ensures that audiovisual players who contribute to the vitality and influence of French creation abide by the obligations to broadcast and finance imposed by law.

For radio services, this contribution takes the form of quotas for French-language songs.

For TV channels, it takes the form of diffusion quotas and obligations to invest in cinematographic and audiovisual works.

For on-demand audiovisual media services (ADMS), these take the form of exhibition quotas and obligations to invest in the production of cinematic and audiovisual works. Under the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, which extends Arcom's remit to foreign video-on-demand services, the regulator can negotiate contracts with content platforms (Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, etc.) to help finance French cinema and audiovisual production, as TV channels currently do.

Taking action against unlawful supplies

Illegal sports streaming websites, illegal downloading of films and series... the loss of value due to piracy is considerable. Every month, 12.4 million Internet users visit illegal services, whose counterfeiting activity represents a loss of revenue of over one billion euros a year in the audiovisual industry alone.

What's more, 80% of illegal services present IT risks for those who use them, exposing their users to threats to their personal and banking data, or to inappropriate content.

To protect creation, Arcom identifies illegal services and may include them on a list of illegal services.

This list informs users and encourages intermediaries (in the advertising and online payment sectors, hosting providers, etc.) to stop collaborating with identified services. This characterization by Arcom can also be used by rights holders as part of their legal action to obtain the blocking of illegal services.

With the creation of Arcom, rights holders can take legal action to block services illegally showing a sports competition. This new scheme, introduced into the French Sports Code, takes account of the urgent nature of blocking unlawful live streaming of sporting events, as the damage caused in this situation is instantaneous and irreversible.

Encouraging legal supplies

Online supplies providing legal access to cultural content have grown significantly. Arcom's mission is to promote this legal supply, in particular through listing.

• The Authority provides users with a service enabling them to search for a legal platform suited to their needs.
• Arcom also enables Internet users to install a module on their browser to be directly informed of the legality of a service making cultural content available.

Fighting information manipulation

The law of December 22, 2018 on combating the manipulation of information entrusts Arcom with monitoring the obligation for online platform operators to take certain measures to fight the diffusion of false information. Each year, Arcom draws up a report analyzing the means deployed by operators, and formulates notices to improve the effectiveness and transparency of these schemes.

Fighting online hate agains

The law of June 24, 2020 made provision for the establishment of the "Online Hate Observatory ", chaired by Arcom. This body, which brings together operators, associations, administrations and researchers, analyzes and quantifies this phenomenon in order to improve understanding of its driving forces and dynamics.

Fighting access by persons under 18 to online pornography

The July 30, 2020law to protect victims of domestic violence mandates Arcom to enforce the ban on access by persons under 18 to pornographic sites. Publishers of adult sites with unsatisfactory age-control schemes may be given formal notice by Arcom, and then have their services blocked and/or delisted from search engines, by decision of the president of the Paris judicial court. As with television and radio, Arcom protects youngsters in the digital sphere from age-inappropriate content.

Controlling the commercial exploitation of children's images on online platforms

The October 19, 2020law aims to frame the work of "child influencers" on online video platforms. Like child actors and models, the work of children under 16 is now covered by specific schemes included in the French Labor Code. Children also benefit from a right to digital oblivion. Arcom, in conjunction with child protection associations, is responsible for promoting the signing of charters by video-sharing platforms, under which the latter undertake to better inform person under 18s of the consequences of exposing their private lives on the Internet.

Participating in platform regulation at European level

The European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) is made up of the 27 national regulatory authorities of the European Union. Its role is to advise the European Commission and facilitate cooperation between the Union's regulatory bodies.

As part of the ERGA , Arcom is monitoring work on the Digital Services Act (DSA), a draft regulation that will create a new regulation model based on greater accountability of online content platforms and supervision by independent public authorities. This model will guarantee a safer European digital space that respects freedom of communication and a more secure digital environment.