Presentation of Arcom's 2024 Activity Report - Arcom President Martin Ajdari's hearing before the French National Assembly's Cultural Affairs and Education Committee
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Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen
Ladies and Gentlemen
Thank you for inviting me to speak at this hearing, the purpose of which, under the provisions of the law, is to present Arcom's 2024 activity report. But it will also be an opportunity to discuss current challenges. And I would like to thank you in particular for your attention in this political context, which I know must be occupying your minds.
My introductory remarks will be divided into two parts: one devoted to Arcom's historic missions, in particular management of the terrestrial spectrum (DTT and radio), support for creativity and plurality. And a second time devoted to digital regulation, as 2024 was marked by the entry into force of major legislation.
I/ First of all, a few words about the DTT platform, which underwent major developments in 2024, with the launch of an unprecedented call for applications for 15 channels, including 10 free-to-air.
Under the provisions of this procedure, on December 11, 2024, Arcom authorized two new channels - T18 and Novo 19 - and did not renew the authorizations of C8 and NRJ12. I can only measure the emotion and debate that this decision has caused, but I would like to emphasize once again that it followed the procedures and criteria laid down by law, the college having based its decision on an assessment of the respective merits of the applications, the experience of the outgoing candidates, their possible shortcomings, and the interest of the new projects.
These moves on free DTT, coupled with the Canal+ Group's decision to revoke its position on pay DTT, led Arcom to adopt a new numbering system deployed on June 6, with the dual aim of ensuring continuity of numbering and legibility, in the public interest, with the creation of a block of news channels. A block that has proved its relevance (with audiences increasing for all 4 channels, as well as for France 4 and LCP).
The year 2024 was also marked by the continuation of a positive economic dynamic for the audiovisual media and for the support they provide, under Arcom's control, to audiovisual creation.
Financing obligations in audiovisual production have thus risen from less than €900 million in 2019 to more than €1.2 billion in 2024 (i.e. +40%), thanks to a rise in the contribution of private channels, the increased commitment of France Télévisions (€440 million) and the successful integration, accompanied by Arcom, of Netflix, Disney+ and other Amazon (which now account for 1/4 of financing obligations in audiovisual production). The 2018 SMA directive is thus a sign of its success.
But this positive cycle is turning around, with a significant drop in TV broadcasters' advertising revenues (down 5% in the first half of the year), a slowdown in the momentum of subscriptions to streaming services and a significant reduction in the subsidy paid to France Télévisions from 2025 onwards, a trend that looks set to become more pronounced in 2026. The entire audiovisual creation sector (drama, documentary, animation) and, more broadly, the entire television economy, its capacity to produce news and quality programs, is thus in danger of being undermined. I think we should all be aware of this.
Radio, the other major terrestrial medium, is seeing its traditional (linear and analog) diffusion challenged by smartphone listening, which means it needs to be developed through the deployment of DAB+. The White Paper on Radio, published in June 2024 by Arcom, has set in motion a promising dynamic.
But progress in terms of awareness and DAB+ device equipment is still too slow, and we decided to strengthen the steering of this initiative at the "Assises de la radio" conference on June 5, with the "Ensemble pour le DAB+" association. Other projects, such as making legal notices more flexible and music exposure, are also underway.
The last notable element in 2024 concerning our historic missions is information plurality, with the Conseil d'Etat's decision requiring Arcom to extend its control to the opinions expressed by all contributors, columnists and guests, whereas it had previously been limited to balancing the speaking time of political personalities.
To this end, on July 17, 2024, Arcom adopted a deliberation to specify this new control, which aims to ensure " the absence of a clear and lasting imbalance in the expression of currents of thought ", measured against three criteria: the variety of themes covered, the diversity of guests and the plurality of viewpoints expressed. I'd like to stress that it was never the regulator's intention to single out or attribute a fixed opinion to a speaker. On the contrary, the aim is to verify whether, on a given theme and at a given time, the opinions expressed reflect a clear and lasting absence of imbalance.
This is a new doctrine, which the Conseil d'Etat has demanded that Arcom abide by in the silence of the law. I wanted to evaluate its implementation.
Consultations with the TV and radio providers concerned have shown that most of them are able to keep track of their guests and the themes they cover, but that they are having difficulty measuring the diversity of viewpoints and opinions. In fact, this is a new area in which our control methods and tools will need to be fine-tuned in line with the number of submissions of a case before the court.
II/ This brings me to the second part of my speech, digital regulation, with major developments in 2024 for Arcom's remit. Starting, of course, with its designation (in the SREN law) as French coordinator of the European regulation on digital services (RSN), which came into force very recently, in 2024.
As such, Arcom's mission is not to intervene in the content itself, but to ensure that platforms based in France comply with the means set out in the RSN, notably in terms of moderation resources, simplicity of reporting for users and transparency of their algorithms.
Arcom also contributes to the regulation of very large platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube), by ensuring close monitoring and participating in the respondent investigations carried out by the European Commission. Arcom is also committed to cooperating with its European counterparts when problematic content is hosted on platforms established in another member state. This was the case with the Kick platform, which hosted Jean Pormanove's channel, the name of the streamer whose death, live on air, aroused very strong and legitimate emotions.
I've heard a lot of criticism about the fact that Arcom would have let this program be shown despite its shocking nature, but our missions in the digital field are very different from those we carry out in the audiovisual field, where, faced with publishers who have editorial responsibility, we are empowered to intervene in their programs.
In the digital sphere, it's up to the police (Pharos) or the courts to assess the legality of content and demand its removal. This matter was referred to the courts at the end of 2024, but no further action has yet been taken.
Nevertheless, this tragedy should encourage us to strengthen our cooperation between government departments, with civil society, the police and the justice system, to improve our collective ability to monitor and warn of the multitude of content circulating online, and to be more responsive. To this end, in October we will be reactivating the Observatoire de la haine en ligne, created by the Avia law in 2020, and which had been put on standby since the adoption of the RSN. I'll also make sure that Arcom devotes more means to it.
With the same aim of mobilizing and increasing the number of RSN regulation tools, we have speeded up the designation of "trusted flaggers", those actors, most often associations, whose role is to report unlawful content (whether online scams, counterfeit goods or hate messages) to the platforms. And they receive priority treatment.
After the "e-Enfance" association, specialized in protecting children online, designated in November 2024, 7 new whistleblowers were designated in 2025 in fields as diverse as the fight against racism and anti-Semitism, consumer protection, tackle online piracy, cyber-violence and addiction prevention. These associations are key players in digital regulation (in the same way as researchers). They also need to be properly funded. I believe this will be one of the keys to the RSN's effectiveness in the coming months and years.
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Through the SREN law, you have also given Arcom new powers in two emblematic fields, which I would like to report on:
1st field: the possibility of stopping the diffusion of Russian media subject to direct or indirect legal sanctions. This enabled us, in 2025, to obtain the shutdown of two channels by Eutelsat, and the delisting or blocking of 19 official Russian media sites. This work will continue.
Field 2: an effective ban on access by persons under 18 to pornographic sites, which became possible following the publication by Arcom in autumn 2024 of the guidelines for age verification schemes, and the government's publication of the implementing regulations for the law in early 2025. All the sites monitored by Arcom - a dozen or so with the largest audience in France - have either been blocked (one of them), or have decided to shut down their service in France (Aylo), or for all the others, have complied. Of course, we're far from having solved everything, as there are still sites with smaller audiences (which will be the subject of the next wave of controls) and risks of circumventing blocking orders by VPNs. But the legislator's will and the regulator's action have changed the situation.
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I'll stop here on the subject of 2024 and its aftermath in 2025, to talk about our priority projects for this autumn.
The first is the protection of persons under 18 online. On September 25, Arcom presented a vast study highlighting the frequency and precociousness with which children and teenagers are exposed to multiple risks linked to online uses, such as hyperconnection or harassment.
We have identified two priorities:
1/ firstly, to guarantee the strict application of the minimum age of 13 stipulated in the platforms' terms of service for access to their services, pending the outcome of the debate on digital majority;
2/ secondly, to ensure that platforms only offer services to person under 18s that are purged of anything likely to put them at risk (e.g. incitement to extreme thinness, shocking content, addictive features such as infinite " scrolling", contact with ill-intentioned adults).
We will be interviewing the main platforms this autumn to check their progress on all these issues, and to identify and then designate both the good and the bad performers. The status quo is not an option.
The second area of work is the development of DTT (digital terrestrial television) in both the short and long term. In the short term, the College has decided not to reallocate the frequencies freed up by the cessation of the Canal+ Group's terrestrial diffusion for two years, as the advertising market does not seem capable of welcoming new entrants.
And we want to take advantage of this period to give the industry a long-term perspective on the future of terrestrial diffusion, on its technical modernization scenarios, on its economic model, and on developments in audiovisual regulation.
The third major issue is the public audiovisual service, which plays an essential role in our democratic system, through its role in national, local and international news and cultural diversity, and through its territorial and overseas presence.
Arcom's mission is to guarantee the independence and impartiality of this public service, which led us to interview the presidents of France Télévisions and Radio France on September 17. Against a backdrop of mistrust of the media and institutions in general, which is not unique to France, we felt it would be useful to expand on the work on the notion of public service impartiality that the report of the États généraux de l'information (EGI) invited us to do a year ago.
The aim of this approach is not to call the public service into question, but to bolster public confidence in their public service, in line with the objectives of the European regulation on media freedom, which will be translated into French law by the forthcoming draft legislation on the protection and development of the right to information.
Thank you for your attention.
Speech by Martin Ajdari
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