A major merger in the public audiovisual sector, a shock proposal from a Senate report

Merge France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde (RFI and France 24) and Ina from 2025 into a single public company called France Médias: this is the shock proposal of a senatorial report on public broadcasting presented Wednesday.

For the specific news sector, the report recommends creating a common structure bringing together all journalists from France Televisions, Radio France and France Media World.

In addition, the creation of France Media would be accompanied by that of a subsidiary dedicated to the local offer. Baptized France Media Regions, it would bring together France 3 television and France Bleu radio stations to develop a large regional public media.

The time has come to put an end to a French exception, that of a dispersed audiovisual sector, pleaded one of the rapporteurs, senator LR Jean-Raymond Hugonet, during a press conference.

Adopted by the Finance Committee and the Culture and Communication Committee of the Senate in the morning, this report was produced with a view to the upcoming abolition of the fee, announced by Emmanuel Macron before his re-election.

But approaching the future of public broadcasting through the sole prism of financing would be a mistake, judge the authors of the report.

What means for what mission, that is the real question, said Mr. Hugonet.

This report will make it possible to have a substantive discussion on what is expected of public broadcasting, hoped the president of the culture and communication committee of the Senate Laurent Lafon (Centrist Union).

In 2015, a previous senatorial mission had already proposed creating a single holding company overseeing France Televisions, Radio France, France Media World and Ina. Started in 2019, this reform was never completed.

Risk of marginalization

The new report goes further by outright proposing the creation of a single society. Arte France and TV5 Monde would remain separate since they are governed by international treaties.

Faced with consolidation in the private sector (TF1 and M6, Canal+ and Europe 1), the risk of marginalization can no longer be excluded for the public service if it remains divided, warns the report.

Find the lowest rate for your real estate project!

The objective would be in particular to completely rethink the digital offer of public audiovisual companies according to common objectives, while France is lagging behind in this area, according to the text.

Finally, the report proposes to oblige the manufacturers of television sets and the telecom operators to create a key on the remote controls allowing direct access to the programs of the public service.

From the point of view of funding, the report recommends creating an independent authority, the Higher Authority for Public Audiovisual (ASAP), to assess needs and monitor funding.

While emphasizing the limits of the royalty mechanism, the other rapporteur, Senator LR Roger Karoutchi, regretted that its abolition had been announced without consultation or compensation by Mr. Macron.

This abolition, which takes effect from this year, obliges the state to find 3.14 billion euros, in addition to the 560 million that it was already paying to compensate for the non-payment of the fee by the households with the lowest incomes, recalls The report.

This deletion has raised fears about the future of public broadcasting. The CGT, CFDT, FO and SNJ unions called on the employees of France Televisions to strike and demonstrate in Paris on June 28.

source site-96