Expanded Regulator Takes On Complex Digital Reality

Michael Hedges January 12, 2022 - Follow on Twitter

Media regulation, broadly cast, has struggled with the digital realm. Telecom rules could quite easily be applied to telephone companies and mobile providers, distribution and competition a common theme. Bringing order to wires and frequencies requires a well-understood legal underpinning. The internet, though, was based on disorder, which made it fun, popular and successful. But so much more could be done with those ones and zeros. Regulators had to catch up.

At the first of this new year French media regulator Conseil supérieur del'audiovisuel (Superior Audiovisual Council - CSA) merged with digital distribution and rights regulator Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des œuvres et la protection des droits sur Internet (Supreme Authority for the Distribution and Protection of Intellectual Property on the Internet - Hadopi) to form a new solution - Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority - Arcom). Teams of French civil servants worked more than two years on the merger. The CSA was widely considered tough but reasonable, Hadopi a disaster. The former CSA president Roch-Olivier Maistre has taken over the new agency.

The days of tracking down and shutting off pirate radio stations in France is long past, mostly. The CSA ruled on licensing for radio and television channels, counted advertising minutes and occasionally dipping into content issues. Hadopi, synonymous with the French digital copyright law that transposed the EU Copyright Directive, was supported by the entertainment industry and criticized by consumer groups as well as the French Pirate Party.

Yes, Arcom will likely take on digital piracy in the near term. French politics understood, subscription video on demand SVoD platforms (read: Netflix and Disney+) and social media platforms (read: Facebook and YouTube) are clearly on the list. In that realm, Arcom will have a look at the Canal+, subsidiary of Vivendi, expansion into SVoD. While the French Competition Commission is taking the lead, Arcom will certainly have a say in the TF1/M6 merger, a “major issue” said M Maistre to Europe 1 (January 7), particularly on which TV channels to be spun-off.

“There are several actors: that of TF1, that of M6, that of RTL,” added M Maistre. “We are going to look at how these will be preserved, if there is a merger. TF1 and M6 now hold ten authorizations to broadcast ten television channels. The law only allows seven. What channels will be put back on the market? Who will they be sold to?”

"The Arcom roadmap, what the law requires of us, is to ensure pluralism. So, that there be a plurality of operators in the field of television, to have a plural offer for the television viewer and a choice in the offer. But also that there is also a plurality of financing windows for productions and not a single funding actor. Finally, there is a plurality of information."

Add to that, French elections are on the horizon. Last September the CSA admonished digital channel CNews over the talk-show participation of far-right host Eric Zemmour, who had been making noises about political office ambitions. M Zemmour was removed from CNews, part of Canal+, shortly before announcing his candidacy. French election media rules strictly quantify time allowed on-air by candidates in the interest of fairness. That campaign is now in full-swing and Arcom staff members are counting the minutes.

Then too, there is fake news and pornography accessible to minors. Arcom has already put several porn sites “on notice” to control access or risk being blocked. Similar steps have been suggested by the Commission on Disinformation, reported L’Express (January 12), to allow legal recourse through Arcom to any person unable to obtain “intervention and cooperation from a platform in order to prevent or stop the massive distribution of a content likely to convey false news that may disturb public order.” Big file, yes?

See also...

• Hot Topics - Media in France