after months of uncertainty, the public audiovisual sector regains serenity

by time news

After eighty-nine years of existence, the fee bowed out in the middle of summer, with the vote on emergency measures for purchasing power. The 28 million taxable French people who declared owning a television and were not exempt from it (such as those over 65) will no longer receive a tax notice to contribute €138 to the financing of Radio France, France Télévisions or Art. Public broadcasting will of course continue to be financed, assured Emmanuel Macron during his presidential campaign. It was to be on the state budget, it will be until the end of 2024 via a VAT levy. Consequently, all French people will participate in it when they make purchases or work.

After months of uncertainty and cold sweats, public broadcasting has regained some serenity since the vote in early November of the 2023 finance law. The fraction of VAT allocated to the sector credits it with a budget of 3.8 billion euros for next year, an increase of 190.4 million euros (+3%) over one year.

“We are generally reassured”

“It’s not too bad, with a little allowance for the effects of inflation”we note to France Media World. “We are generally reassured over the next two years. Even if the increase is partly eaten away by new taxes », says a source at Arte. France Télévisions and the INA consider themselves more injured. “In 2023, there is rather compensation for public operators. The real danger is not in the short term, but in the medium term,” warns the senator of Val-de-Marne Laurent Lafon (centrist Union).

After 2024, it will no longer be possible to allocate a portion of the VAT, due to the public finance modernization reform. With this deadline, the specter of a budgeting of credits for the public audiovisual sector reappears, subject to annual arbitration. “In Spain where this is the case, the budget and audiences have dropped by 40%”recalled in July Delphine Ernotte, the president of France Télévisions, to the deputies.

The abolition of the fee had an unforeseen impact in Germany. Arte France and RFI were worried during the summer “because budgeting is similar for the Germans to the end of their independence”, notes Alain Le Diberder, media specialist and former program director of Canal+ and Arte. This complicated the renewal of the RFI frequency across the Rhine. “It’s more annoying for Artehe notes, because the treatydater provides that the partners are independent of the government and allocates the same amount. But Germany is in a phase of resource growth. And Arte no longer seems so important to her as before. »

Alternatives to the fee

It is partly for these diplomatic questions that the deputies Aurore Bergé and Quentin Bataillon proposed financing on a portion of the VAT this summer. budgeting ” disguised “estimates the deputy of Marne Charles de Courson (Les Centristes) since this share is not fixed in advance but “in relation to the amount you want to give”. In the midst of a debate in the National Assembly this summer, this respected public finance specialist was shown in the spotlight, believing that “the fundamental problem is the independence of public broadcasting as an element of regulation of our democracy” and that it should have “a specific text”.

“This is a good example of poor governance. Instead of thinking about the problem, that is to say what the public service is for and how to finance it, we immediately attack the financing, ” he asserts by denouncing a reform “without preparation or reflection”. “The way ofe wisdom was to modernize the royalty to keep up with the technological evolution”as many European countries have done over the past ten years, he still retorts.

This is also what the economist Julia Cagé thinks, who listed alternatives in a report by the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. They fed several amendments to Parliament. “It advanced the public debate, showing that the license fee could be replaced by earmarked public funding, proportional or progressive, but dependent on income. But after two years of VAT portion and then probably budgeting, it will be politically very complicated to restore earmarked funding, which would be perceived as a new tax, if there is a political alternation in 2027. While we could reform it making it fairer. »

What missions for the French?

All options remain on the table, promises Renaissance MP Quentin Bataillon, rapporteur for an information mission on the future of public broadcasting, which began its hearings on November 23 and will report its conclusions by summer 2023. “The idea of ​​the mission is to address all subjects, starting by asking the question of public service missions to redefine or reaffirm them before dealing with those of financing or governance, but also innovation or sovereignty. digital »he says. The possibility of merging four out of six companies and creating a Newsroom (Press room) common will also be discussed. »

The proposal was in a Senate report from the Finance and Culture Committees, released in June. She had set fire to the powder and provoked a strike before the summer at France Télévisions and Radio France.

For Laurent Lafon, one of the rapporteurs, if the financing of public media were budgeted after 2024, “We need to find more legally sound tools to guarantee it a multi-year trajectory on the model of programming laws”.“An independent authority will also have to ensure that public broadcasting does not become a variable of budgetary adjustment”he adds. “We must also highlight the usefulness of public broadcasting. »

“The French are not aware of what they risk losing because it is not visible in the short term, abounds Julia Cagé. If we managed to do this educational work, there would be real mobilization. » The fact-finding mission, says Quentin Bataillon, plans to“ask citizens about their expectations of public broadcasting”.

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Funding up slightly for 2023

In 2023, 23 million French households will no longer have to pay the annual €138 fee. This tax was allocated since 1933 to the financing of public radio and television, today France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde (RFI, France 24, Monte Carlo Doualiya), TV5 Monde, the National Audiovisual Institute ( INA) and Arte France.

Now guaranteed (until the end of 2024) by a portion of VAT, audiovisual funding will amount to 3.815 billion euros in 2023, i.e. an increase of 190.4 million compared to 2022 to offset part inflation and new business.

The abolition of the fee also has the effect of subjecting the six public companies to new charges from which they were exempt, such as payroll tax (i.e. 42.6 million euros for the sector), and the loss of the right the deduction of VAT on purchases (36 million for Arte France, France Médias Monde and INA).

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