Yesterday, the Minister of Culture presented, in the Council of Ministers, an ordinance which, as a principal measure, transposes Directive (EU) 2018/1808 of 14 November 2018 on audiovisual media services by amending Law No. 86-1067 of 30 September 1986 on freedom of communication.

This new “Audiovisual Media Services” (ADM) directive of 14 November 2018 includes a particularly important innovation for the national film and audiovisual creative financing system. It allows France, as well as each Member State of the European Union, to apply its own production contribution regime to foreign channels and video-on-demand platforms offering a service in France.

The French authorities obtained this major step forward in defending the cultural exception in the context of the negotiation of the directive which took place between 2013 and 2018.

The order presented yesterday, which will be promulgated before the end of the year, pursues two objectives: to ensure the sustainability of our production financing system, especially independent, and to guarantee equity between French broadcasters and global platforms.

In this context, an intense phase of discussions with all stakeholders has been held over the past few months on the criteria for the new system of contribution to the production of European and French works.

The resulting Draft Implementing Decree on On-Demand Media Services (SMAD) sets a high level of ambition, with 20 or 25% of the platforms' turnover in France to be devoted to film and audiovisual production. A substantial part of this contribution should also be dedicated to heritage works of original French expression and to independent production.

This draft decree was sent to the CSA for its opinion and notified to the European Commission under the procedure provided for in Directive 2015/1535 on 18 December 2020. Its publication after review by the Council of State can be envisaged for spring 2021.

France was at the initiative of the SMA directive. It is at the rendezvous of its implementation.

The Minister of Culture welcomes the commitment of all stakeholders to the discussions that have been strongly mobilized in recent months.

This important first step marks a major step forward in the reform of our system of contribution to audiovisual and film production, which will be completed, in the first half of 2021, by the work of revision of the «DTT» decree, the «cable-satellite» decree and the professional agreement on the media timeline.