French broadcasters have announced plans for greater co-operation.
At a seminar in Paris, TF1 boss Rodolphe Belmer said discussions were taking place as to how the broadcast industry might organise itself into sectors.
“All industries are organised in this way, we are fragmented so far; ideally, we would like to implement this sector by mid-October,” he told delegates.
Part of the objective is to give the industry a single voice that would be organised like the Deutsche TV Plattform. An immediate concern is the television Licence Fee, which since 2022 has been drawn from a fraction of VAT, something which is due to end this year.
One seasoned media observer of the French market welcomed the proposal, telling Broadband TV News: “I would see the prominence matter, both at French and European level, as the No. 1 topic they should put on the list, and may be next to ‘Franly’, the French version of the UK’s public streaming platform Freely.
There were other issues troubling Belmer, including the financing of the CNC (National Center for Cinema and the Animated Image), the status of freelancer, and the regulation of artificial intelligence.
However, despite the friendliness of the exchanges, there are clear differences even between the commercial players. Belmer believes that YouTube hoovers up advertising for its short form content – TF1 counters with longer drama shows – while David Larramendy, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the M6 ??group, saw a different threat, observing that the likes of Amazon “weren’t just here to be another player”.
