Presentation of Arcom's 2024 Activity Report - Hearing of Martin Ajdari, President of Arcom, before the French senate's Committee on Culture, Education, Communication and Sport
Check against delivery
Mr. Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate,
Thank you for inviting me to speak at this hearing, the purpose of which, under the provisions of the 1986 law, is to present Arcom's 2024 activity report, a period prior to my taking office. But it will also be an opportunity to talk about our current situation and future prospects, which I propose to do in two parts: first, we'll focus on Arcom's historic missions, concentrating on management of the terrestrial spectrum (DTT and radio), support for creativity and plurality. The second part will be devoted to digital regulation, with the year 2024 having been marked by the entry into force of major legislation. I'll conclude with a few remarks on current issues.
First and foremost, I would like to pay tribute to the members of the college I have the honor of chairing (the collegiality of our decisions can never be stressed enough) and to Arcom's staff, whose dedication to their mission I salute.
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 bids for 15 channels, 10 of them 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 two authorizations - those of C8 and NRJ12. Without going into the details of this decision, which predates my appointment, I feel it is important to point out, in view of the questions and even misunderstandings it may have raised, that this decision strictly followed the procedures laid down by law. There were more candidates than places available, and to decide between them, the college based its decision on an assessment of the respective merits of the projects, the experience acquired by the outgoing candidates, but also their shortcomings and legal sanctions, and the interest of the new projects.
These moves on free-to-air 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 several objectives dictated by the public interest: ensuring numbering continuity, adapting numbers to channels, and creating a block of news channels. A block that has proved its relevance (with audiences increasing for all 4 channels), as has the progress of France 4 and LCP-Public Sénat, according to data now available.
More broadly, 2024 was marked by the continuation of a positive economic dynamic for the audiovisual media and the support they provide, under Arcom's control, for audiovisual creation.
Audiovisual production financing obligations have risen from €860 million in 2019 to €1.2 billion in 2023 (+40%), thanks to the increased contribution of private channels, the increased commitment of FTV (€440 million) and the successful integration, supported by Arcom, of Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon (1/4 of audiovisual production obligations today). The figures for 2024, which are not yet definitive, will confirm this positive trend, which demonstrates the interest and success of the SMA directive.
But this positive cycle has already turned around, with a 5% drop in TV broadcasters' advertising revenues in the first half of the year, linked to a sharp decline in listeners' time, a slowdown in the momentum of SMADs in France, and a significant reduction in the subsidy paid to France Télévisions in 2025, a trend that looks set to become even more pronounced in 2026.
The country's budgetary constraints are there, unquestionable and inescapable, but I also think I'm doing my part by warning of the consequences of these cuts, if they are too sudden, on a production ecosystem that needs visibility. Beyond audiovisual creation, the entire television economy is in danger of being undermined. We'll come back to this later.
Radio, the other major terrestrial medium, is seeing its traditional (linear and analog) diffusion increasingly challenged by smartphone listening, which means it needs to be developed. One of the levers of this development is the deployment of DAB+, with the aim of increasing supply in a context of FM band saturation, preserving the universality and sovereignty of diffusion (without intermediaries), while improving the quality of listeners.
The White Paper on Radio, published in June by Arcom, has set the ball rolling. But progress in terms of awareness and DAB+ device equipment is still too slow, and we have decided to improve the steering of this process, at the Assises de la Radio on June 5, 2025, with the Direction Générale des Médias et des Industries Culturelles (DGMIC) and "Ensemble pour le DAB+". Other projects are also underway, such as the easing of legal requirements and the conditions for music exposure.
The last noteworthy aspect of Arcom's historic missions that I wanted to address is information plurality, with the Conseil d'Etat's decision of February 13, 2024, requiring Arcom to extend its control, previously limited to balancing the speaking time of political figures, to the opinions expressed by all contributors, columnists and guests.
In application of this decision, Arcom adopted a resolution in July 2024 to specify this new control, which is now aimed at ensuring the absence of a clear and lasting imbalance in the expression of these currents of thought and opinion, measured by the diversity of contributors, the variety of themes covered and the plurality of points of view.
As soon as I took office, I asked for an assessment of how this deliberation (which raised many questions) would be implemented. The editors were browsed in the first half of 2025, and it emerged that the majority of them are more or less able to keep track of the topics covered and the guests (excluding any record-keeping). On the other hand, they reported difficulties in measuring the diversity of viewpoints and opinions expressed on air. This is therefore a new area in which our control methods and criteria will have to be refined as and when we receive submissions of a case before the court.
II/ This brings me to the second part of my speech, digital regulation, with major developments in Arcom's remit.
Starting, of course, with Arcom's designation (in the SREN law) as coordinator of the European regulation on digital services in France (RSN). This regulation itself will be effective from 2024, and I stress this because it's so recent.
In this capacity, Arcom's mission is to ensure that platforms based in France comply with their means obligations, particularly in terms of moderation and alert settings. Above all, Arcom contributes to the European Commission's regulation of very large platforms, and its role is to cooperate with its European counterparts when problematic content is hosted on platforms established in another member state. In fact, this is partly what went wrong in the case of the Kick platform (and the live death of Raphaël Graven, which I'd like to come back to as you've invited me to).
I've heard a lot of criticism of the fact that Arcom let this program be diffused despite its shocking nature. The emotion aroused is understandable and legitimate, but this criticism is undoubtedly linked to a misunderstanding of what our missions are in the digital field, very different from what they are for audiovisual regulation (where we intervene in the diffusion of audio and video content by TV and radio - which have editorial responsibility).
Neither the RSN nor the law give Arcom the power to assess the legality of content circulating on online platforms, or to demand its removal. This is a matter for the courts, which, in this case, took action as early as December 2024: the Nice public prosecutor / prosecution opened an investigation, placed two protagonists in police custody and heard Raphaël Graven, but took no further action.
However, it is clear that we collectively lacked responsiveness and vigilance, since we had no new reports between February and August, and it took the same time to obtain legal representation for Kick in the European Union (Malta). We are therefore going to strengthen our cooperation mechanisms, between French administrations and players - we have started to do this by reactivating the Observatoire de la haine en ligne - as well as at European level, where we raised this matter at the DSA Board last week. I also hope that we can devote more means to this.
Still under the RSN umbrella, we have designated a number of "trusted flaggers", those actors, most often associations, whose role it is to inform platforms of unlawful content (be it online scams, counterfeiting or hate messages). They are given priority for processing and removal.
The first "signaller" (the e-Enfance association), specialized in child protection, was designated in November 2024, and the movement has accelerated with the designation of 7 new "signallers" in fields as diverse as the fight against racism and anti-Semitism, consumer protection, the fight against piracy, cyber-violence and addiction prevention. The work of these whistleblowers (as well as researchers' access to platform consumption data to better assess the risks) should enable the regulation provided for by the RSN to be multiplied.
The SREN law has also given Arcom new powers in two particularly emblematic areas.
Firstly, Arcom has the power to stop, after formal notice, the diffusion of Russian media subject to direct or indirect legal sanctions. This possibility enabled us, in 2025, to obtain the cessation of the diffusion of two channels by Eutelsat, and the delisting or blocking of 19 official Russian media sites. This work will continue, as the legislator has invited us to do.
2nd field: the effective prohibition of access by persons under 18 to pornographic sites. In accordance with the law, in the autumn of 2024, Arcom published a set of standards defining the requirements applicable to age verification schemes (effectiveness and protection of privacy), after receiving the opinion of the French national data protection agency. And over the last few months, as soon as the requisite regulatory texts had been published by the government (and the numerous legal disputes dismissed), we have enjoined the dozen or so sites with the largest audience in France to comply with the law, under threat of blocking or delisting.
This approach has produced results, since all the sites targeted have either been blocked (one of them), or have decided to shut down their service in France (Aylo), or to comply with the law. Of course, we're far from having solved everything: there are still all the sites with smaller audiences (which will soon be the subject of the next wave of controls) and, of course, means of circumventing blocking orders (VPNs). But we can see that the legislator's will and the regulator's action have changed the situation. Free access to dangerous online content, particularly for children, is therefore not inevitable.
I'm going to stop here, as I'd like to take a few minutes to mention a few of Arcom's priorities for the new school year.
The first is the protection of person under 18s online. Last Thursday, Arcom presented a comprehensive study highlighting the increasing frequency and precocity with which children and teenagers are exposed to multiple risks on the Internet.
We have identified two main priorities for the coming months:
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 debates on digital majority;
2/ secondly, to ensure that platforms only offer services to persons under 18 that are purged of anything likely to put them at risk (incitement to risky behavior or eating disorders, shocking content, addictive features such as infinite "scrolling", interactions with potentially malevolent adults).
We'll be interviewing the platforms as of this autumn to check their progress, and where appropriate, point out the good or bad performers. One thing is certain: the status quo is no longer an option.
Our second priority is the development of DTT in both the short and long term. In view of the state of the advertising market, the College has decided not to reallocate the frequencies freed up by the Canal + Group's departure from DTT for two years (short term).
For the long term, we have decided to reflect on the future of this broadcasting method, once predominant, still indispensable today for many households (especially the most isolated) but in decline, in a world of digital and largely non-linear hyper-supply : what modernization? what objectives? what associated regulation tools, to preserve the visibility and financing of an ambitious supply. We would like to tackle these challenges for the coming years in the form of a white paper (similar to the work we've done on radio).
Our third priority is the audiovisuel public service, a public service whose independence we, as regulators, have a duty to protect and ensure that it is able to carry out its missions, which are essential to democracy (national, local and international information, cultural diversity, territorial and overseas presence).
A few days after the diffusion of video excerpts that gave rise to heated debates, and following the submission of a case before the court, the Arcom college interviewed the presidents of France Télévisions and Radio France on September 17, to gather their observations on this footage, but also and above all to take stock of the broader questions to which it gave rise.
Against a backdrop of mistrust of the media and institutions (which is not unique to France), we felt it advisable to pursue and deepen the work to which the report of the Etats généraux de l'information (EGI) had already prompted us a year ago.
This work will essentially aim to:
1/ objectivise the notion of impartiality, which is not spelled out in any text (unlike the notion of independence), and whose concrete scope needs to be clarified;
2/ to measure the public's perception and expectations of public service broadcasting; 3/ and finally, to evaluate the tools available to public audiovisual companies, and where appropriate, to supplement them in the light of experience in Europe. After all, we are far from the only country facing this issue.
I can't end this introduction without mentioning the draft legislation relating to the Etats généraux de l'information (EGI), which you will no doubt be hearing shortly, and which will bring about major changes, particularly in terms of modernising the control of multi-media mergers. This modernised external plurality could also be an opportunity for the legislator to consider the scope of internal pluralism (which, as we have seen, raises a number of questions), even if the draft legislation does not deal with it at this stage. In any case, it lies at the heart of the legislator's legitimacy.
Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't finish without mentioning two important aspects of our action: the fight against piracy - by reiterating our impatience to see the provisions of your other bill (on sport) come into force - and accessibility to public websites for people with disabilities, where, through proactive dialogue with administrations and local authorities, we're beginning to achieve positive results.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate, these are the main challenges on which you will find Arcom to be a determined regulator, always ready to listen. Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
Speech by Martin Ajdari
- 190.48 KB
- in french