The Ministry of Culture and Communication opens a public consultation in order to gather the observations of the actors concerned on the modification of the definition of prime time for the respect of the obligations of diffusion of cinematographic works and original French expression by the publishers of television services.
Decree No. 90-66 of 17 January 1990, made for the application of Law No. 86-1067 of 30 September 1986 and laying down the general principles concerning the distribution of cinematographic and audiovisual works by publishers of television services, states: in Article 7, those prime-time hours.

The second paragraph of II of this article states:

Prime time is defined as hours between 20:30 and 22:30. However, for film service publishers and pay-per-view service publishers, prime time is defined as hours between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m.”

However, the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel is subject to the practices of certain service publishers, which declare works whose broadcast begins between 22:20 and 22:30, in order to comply with prime-time broadcast quotas. In some cases, this method of accounting may lead to the observance of quotas at peak time by taking into account works broadcast in the second part of the evening and of which only a few minutes are included in the time slot in question.

The Ministry of Culture and Communication wonders about the advisability of amending Article 7 of Decree No. 90-66 to give it its full effect, to ensure a good exhibition of European cinematographic works and original French expression in the first part of the evening.

Responses to the consultation must be submitted by Friday, March 31, 2017, by post or electronically to:

Mr Director-General for Media and Cultural Industries

Ministry of Culture and Communication

Public consultation on the amendment of the definition of prime time for the fulfilment of the obligations of publishers of television services to broadcast European cinematographic works and original French expression

182 Saint-Honoré Street

75033 Paris Cedex 01

consultation-quotas-cinema.dgmic@culture.gouv.fr