Opening speech at the conference to present the study on implementation of the SMAD decree

Check against delivery,

Mr. Director General of the CNC, dear Olivier Henrard,

Mr. Ludovic Berthelot, Head of the Media Department, Ministry of Culture,

Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,

I'm delighted to welcome you to Arcom this afternoon for this conference devoted to the presentation of our study on the on-demand audiovisual media services decree, or "SMAD decree" to put it mildly. This study was carried out in collaboration with the Centre National du Cinéma et de l'Image Animée and the DGMIC. First and foremost, I'd like to thank the teams from our two companies involved in preparing the study that will be presented to you in a few moments, and more generally in organizing this conference.

On behalf of Arcom, I would particularly like to salute the involvement of Antoine Boilley, who joined our college in January 2023, and since then has taken on the task of the working group dedicated to audiovisual, cinematographic and musical creation, as well as our creative department, headed by Raphaël Berger, with the daily involvement on this dossier of Laure Saccone, in charge of monitoring funding obligations. I would also like to thank our Research Department, which has made a major contribution to this work. This is an opportunity for me to stress the importance of the cultural dimension of regulation, which has expanded considerably in recent years.

The SMAD decree of June 22, 2021, which translated the ambitions of the 2018 SMA directive, opened up a new era for the financing of creation.

Let me remind you that national television publishers are the primary financiers of national production, with obligations defined according to their sales figures and which can be earmarked, depending on their programming and business model, for particular genres. In 2022, contributions from lineal editors in television amounted to over €1.2 billion: we will shortly be publishing the 2023 figures, which once again highlight the sector's mobilization.

This financing model, based on the commitment of traditional audiovisuel players , contributes directly to the vitality of national creation, and is at the heart of the regulator's relations with regulated players, whether in frequency bidding exercises, in the drafting of agreements or in the monitoring of obligations. In this respect, we are fortunate to have a number of particularly committed players in France, both public and private.

I'm thinking in particular of France Télévision's support for audiovisual creation and Canal +'s support for cinematographic creation. The commitment of our national players is one of the reasons why the regulator is particularly vigilant when it comes to their financing: public audiovisual must benefit from dedicated and survival resources, and the business model of our private media must be protected and strengthened.

Faced with developments in consumer habits, and in particular a significant shift towards on-demand consumption on international platforms, it has become essential to develop our business model. This development was necessary to correct the disparities in regulations between national players and international platforms, since the latter, targeting the French public, were not subject to production financing obligations; it was also necessary to give new impetus to our cultural model, by adapting it to the new realities of the environment for the creation and consumption of audio and video content.

This is the ambition of the AVMS directive and the purpose of the SMAD decree. The audiovisuel regulator immediately mobilized to implement it. As early as December 2021, Arcom was able to integrate these new players smoothly - and without litigation. The regulator secured the financing of these players by signing agreements and notifying the main international SMADs targeting French audiences of their obligations; France was then, along with Italy, the only member state in Europe to have implemented the directive's manager so quickly. It did so with particularly ambitious levels of contribution, unrivalled in the rest of the Union, with obligations focused in particular on heritage works and original EOF.

The integration of these players has made it possible to offer new financing to our production, whether in audiovisual or cinematic production: in 2022, SMAD expenditure corresponded to almost €350 million, or 20% of the total expenditure retained for audiovisual and cinematic production, an increase of over 12% compared to 2021. Since the decree came into force, more than €866 million has been declared by just three of these foreign subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services - Disney+, Netflix and Prime Video, which are the subject of a special analysis in our study - including €624 million for the pre-financing of European works or works of original EOF.

The agreements signed with the regulator have often been subsequently enhanced by inter-professional agreements with the industry.

The commitments made by the major streaming players underline the strength of our cultural model, which is able to adapt to changes in usage and the market; they also demonstrate the willingness of these players to integrate harmoniously into this model, in order to bolster the dynamism of our production fabric, whose players have been able to take advantage of the new demands expressed by the public and by these video-on-demand players; lastly, they have profoundly developed Arcom's work. Today, streaming players are daily contacts for the regulator, and are fully integrated into our control missions, in a constructive working climate. I'd like to take this opportunity to emphasize how important it is for us to be transparent in our investment information. Finally, I'd like to point out that the French public, like the international public, is very receptive to the programs and works produced by SMADs, particularly when it comes to fulfilling their obligations. As you know, the public interest is one of the regulator's guiding principles, and we can only be delighted at the tangible impact of our collective progress.

We could be satisfied with this satisfaction and observe the developments spurred on by the SMAD decree. But as a good auditor, I know that all public policies need to be evaluated, and that we must always question the relevance of a manager, its effects and its future.

That's why we decided to work with the CNC on a review of the implementation of this decree, more than three years after its publication and now that we have sufficient drop to conduct this exercise.

Let me be clear, however: review does not mean rethink, still less a clean slate. At a time when the AVMS directive is under increasing attack, including at European level, I believe it is urgent to consolidate its legacy. Fabien Raynaud and Hortense Naudascher recently submitted an interesting report to the Chairman of the CNC on the balance of the audiovisuel and film industry in the age of major platforms, whose proposals will be useful in the phases to come.

I'm convinced that the excellence of a cultural model can't be decreed: it has to be built, with regulations, regulators, a committed industry and mobilized partners - all of you here today. That's why we wanted to conduct our work in a spirit of responsibility.

Antoine Boilley and Cécile Lacoue, the CNC's Director of Studies and Forecasting, will present the results in a moment. But first, without further ado , I'd like to hand over to Olivier Henrard. Thank you for listening.