Speech by Roch-Olivier Maistre at the opening of the Grand débat politique at the La Rochelle Drama Festival
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Ladies and Gentlemen Presidents,
dear friends,
I'm delighted to be with you again this morning for this traditional meeting of the Grand Débat, and I'd like to thank the organizers for giving me the opportunity to introduce our discussions with a few opening words. Firstly, I'd like to share a few key facts with you, to highlight the profound transformations underway in our audiovisual and digital landscape. Then, as a prelude to the debate that follows, I'd like to highlight some of the challenges that these upheavals present, both for our national players and for the authorities.
In terms of the transformations underway, I'm tempted to speak of a triple revolution
First revolution: the revolution in usage
This is expressed first and foremost by the downward trend in the amount of time spent watching television: down 17% between June 2020 and June 2023, to 202 minutes a day, according to the latest Médiamétrie data. While this is still a very significant amount of time, it is part of a structural contraction also observed in Europe.
This trend is particularly marked among the youngsters. Between 2008 and 2022, the number of viewers aged 15-49 dropped by 29%, and the average age of TV viewers rose from 47 to 57 over the same period.
While each French household has an average of almost six screens, these figures reveal strong differences in usage between generations.
Another major development is that over 50% of French households now subscribe to at least one subscription-based video-on-demand service, with a market dominated by the 3 major American platforms Netflix, Amazon and Disney. However, their subscriber bases have been shrinking since the end of 2022, weighing on their economic equilibrium due to the weight of their investments in content and technology.
The last notable development in usage is the very strong anchoring of social networking, to which the French devote an average of one hour every day. 2/3 of under-15s visit Snapchat every day, closely followed by Tiktok and Instagram. For many French people today (a third), the Internet has become the primary source of information.
Second revolution: the publishers' revolution
First observation: the structure of the audiovisuel landscape has been turned upside down by the role played by international platforms. For our national groups, they represent growing competition for works and talent, in both the audiovisual and film sectors, and therefore for costs. The landscape is also undergoing consolidation, particularly in the United States, with major mergers (Disney-Fox, Warner-Discovery, Amazon-MGM, etc.). It's safe to assume that this climate of hyper-competition is far from stabilized, and that further transactions are likely.
A second observation, again with far-reaching consequences for free publishers, is that digital advertising is capturing more than half of the media advertising market, and most of the growth in advertising revenues.
In 2022, revenues from digital platforms showed vigorous growth, while the level of advertising revenues from traditional media was still lower than in 2019. Two-thirds of digital advertising revenues are captured by three non-European platforms: Google-Meta-Amazon. This represents a major challenge in terms of preserving our operators' financing model.
The third revolution is that of diffusion vectors.
DTT reception, which has long dominated our landscape, is now vigorously facing competition. Slowly but steadily dropping, it is now the only means of accessing television for less than 20% of households.
By contrast, connected TV sets are growing very fast : 88% of TV-equipped households had a smart TV by the end of 2022. 27% of these households have a connected TV box (+5 points in one year) and 10% have a Google Chromecast key. Every day, OTT distribution is shaking up the traditional box model, and the TV screen, which remains central to the sector's overall economy, is inevitably being transformed into a store of applications, most of them paying: YouTube consumption via this channel now accounts for almost 30%.
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This threefold revolution calls for far-reaching strategic reorientation on the part of both industry players and the authorities.
First and foremost, the status quo is not an option for publishers, whether public or private. They are all engaged in an essential strategic reorientation.
First and foremost, they need to reach out to audiences where they are, which means strengthening their digital and editorial strategies.
The need to invest in new digital media and content is growing for all audiovisual groups: on-demand services financed by advertising or subscriptions, free-to-air and streaming channels, web platforms and mobile applications, investment in original content dedicated to digital, or which can be shown in both linear and non-linear formats.
Audiovisual groups are also reviewing their distribution strategies. On the one hand, they need to keep pace with developments in usage, and on the other, consolidate their business models. In this context, the question of accessing and exploiting consumer data has become crucial.
For their part, authors and producers must also adapt to this new landscape by responding to the demand from both national groups and international streaming services for diversification of scripts and formats. I'd like to pay tribute here to the vitality of French creation, which is a tremendous asset for our country, and to the dynamism of our national operators.
Secondly, this strategic reorientation also applies to the authorities, to better support these transformations.
This is first and foremost true at European level, with a dual ambition: on the one hand, to correct the regulatory disparities that remain between traditional audiovisual players and international on-demand audiovisual media services; on the other, to defend the European cultural model, its specific features and its financing. These two objectives have guided the action of the current Commission, with the "audiovisual media services" and "royalties" directives, as well as the regulations on digital services and markets, and the draft regulation on media freedom.
At national level, regulation has also been adapted to better respond to developments in the sector: this is the reason behind the creation of Arcom on January 1, 2022, with an extension of its scope of intervention to include digital platforms. As a result, the Authority will monitor compliance by international SMADs with their obligations to finance French and European creation.
It also has promising new means at its disposal to fight agains piracy. We also monitor compliance with royalties clauses in contracts signed with producers, and keep a close eye on the development of artificial intelligence and its impact on creation.
We also have a number of large-scale projects ahead of us, such as ensuring that our national players and their programs have the right exposure in the new world of interfaces for accessing audiovisuel services. This is the whole subject of "services of general interest", which plays a part in preserving our cultural sovereignty. We will be deliberating on this issue shortly.
But now it's time for the debate! Thank you for listening.
Roch-Olivier Maistre's speech
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A changing landscape: some recent trends
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