The Minister of Culture and Communication, Aurélie Filippetti, today received the report from Laurent Vallet, Director General of the Institute for the Financing of Cinema and Cultural Industries (IFCIC), on obligations to finance audiovisual production by television channels.
The Minister welcomes this work which, like that of the Assises for the diversity of cinema, is part of the action of the Ministry of Culture and Communication to promote the development and creativity of our audiovisual and film sector, in the face of technological and competitive changes and new public expectations.
Based on a broad consultation of the professionals concerned, the mission carried out an inventory of the relations between broadcasters and audiovisual producers, and of the limits that the whole sector encounters in its development.
Laurent Vallet analysed the current balance between broadcasters' investment in the production of works and the level and extent of exploitation rights they hold in return, and it formulates proposals aimed in particular at a better circulation of works and an optimization of their exploitation on all the distribution media. In his conclusions, he is also attentive to the consolidation of independent production, which is a guarantee of the inventiveness and creativity of the French audiovisual industry.
The Minister of Culture and Communication endorses the main proposals of this report and asks her services to prepare the implementation, ensuring the necessary exchanges with the various actors concerned.
The law of 15 November 2013 on independent production already provides for the possibility for broadcasters to take co-production shares in the works for which they provide most of the financing. The 70% minimum level of funding proposed by Laurent Vallet seems appropriate in view of existing practices.
The Minister also adopted the proposal of absolute capital independence for independent production companies, in which broadcasters could no longer hold a share of capital. It also considers it appropriate to allow France Télévisions to increase its proportion of so-called dependent production, and to leave unchanged the already high proportion - which is provided for private channels.
As for the circulation of works, the Minister accepts the proposals to improve their effectiveness: proposed obligation to count the commitments of creation at the level of groups of chains, and management of marketing mandates operated in a transparent manner, fair and non-discriminatory, in the interest of all parties.
With regard to ethics, starting with the public service, Aurélie Filippetti is in favour of the measure providing that a former employee of a channel having dealt with the creation of audiovisual works, if he founds or becomes an employee of a production company, will not be able to benefit or contract with his previous employer for three years.
Finally, the regulation will be simplified and modernised by the re-establishment of an appropriate hierarchy of standards: the regulatory framework will lay down common principles while respecting the equal treatment of all actors, and the regulatory body will adapt them to the specificities of each service.
With this report and its implementation, a major step can be taken in the modernization of relations between broadcasters and producers, at the service of the creativity and dynamism of French television.
Paris, 17 December 2013
The report is available online on the Ministry of Culture and Communication website:
http://culturecommunication.gouv.fr/Actualites/Missions-et-rapports/Rapport-de-Laurent-Vallet-sur-les-obligations-de-financement-de-la-prodiction-audiovisuelle