Macron plans to review state media funding
financial times, Written by Laila Abboud p. 3
Emmanuel Macron: His government argues that licensing fees are outdated because fewer people own a TV. President’s proposal to replace licensing fees with direct finance fuel fears independence
While playing pop music on .’s flagship morning radio show, France Inter, the reporters who produced the political and celebrity interviews for the state-backed channel were far from the studio. Instead, they joined thousands of other media workers who demonstrated in Paris in late June to protest the president’s plans. Emmanuel Macron To modify the financing methods of French public broadcasters. Also among them was Christopher Pauli, Union leader France Televisions, state-owned. “We are really concerned that the government’s strategy is to squeeze or break up our balance sheets by selling spare parts,” he said. The dispute makes France the latest test of the European public media service model, which was introduced to provide independent, open-access news and entertainment with financial support from the state. But the model is challenged by tight budgets, shrinking audiences, and political challenges to the legitimacy and impartiality of broadcasters. About two-thirds of the annual funding for the public media sector, which amounts to 21.4 billion euros EuropeIt still comes from subscription fees, or from annual taxes that families collect.
In addition to Francethey depend on kingdom unitedThe Germany And the Italia: In France, the state will spend 3.7 billion euros this year on the public broadcasting sector, 85% of which will come from license fees. However, Macron’s government wants to abolish the 138-euro fee, which 23 million families pay with televisions, and to fund public media directly from the state budget. The government says the rent is obsolete because fewer people own a TV, while rent collection is no longer effective after the abolition of the house tax collected in the same period. Unions and media experts warn that public broadcasters will be more vulnerable to partisan pressure if funded directly by the Treasury, and that unpredictable budgets will make it difficult to invest in them to stay relevant while broadcasting, from Netflix to me AmazonThey invest billions in content.
“Removing license fees is a very bad idea that would seriously threaten the independence of the public media,” he said. Julia cage, an economist at the University of Sciences Po. In a media landscape dominated by broadcasters owned by industrial billionaires, such as TFI From Martin Puig and the Vivendi From Vincent polyurethaneOf particular importance is the presence of “strong and credible” French public radio stations. Macron’s government rejected the idea that funding for reform could weaken or limit public media, instead seeing it as a way to return money to citizens while inflation is occurring. minister culture Rima Abdel Malik He told Le Parisien newspaper that he was working on “mechanisms” to protect the independence of the state-backed media.
(complete in financial times)
(in the picture Emmanuel Macron)
