The two operators tried to reduce their payments to the CNC, the National Center for Cinema and Animated Images. A great attempt that will not pass. Indeed, justice has just ordered Free and SFR to regularize their situation with the institution in charge of the French 7th art.
As operators who provide television offers, Free, SFR and others have since 2010 had to pay a tax with the CNC (editor’s note: National Center for Cinema and Animated Images): the TST-D. To summarize, this tax in the amount of 3.5% on Triple Play TV subscriptions is collected by the CNC each year to help finance French film production.
From year to year, the TST-D has become one of the CNC’s main sources of income. Indeed, and if we are to believe the 2024 finance bill, this contribution today represents 27% of the budget of the institution in charge of the 7th French art, i.e. nearly 746 million euros this year. And this percentage is expected to increase further, particularly after the successive increases made by operators on their TV offers (+€1.20 on average).
However, this tax obviously annoys operators who seek by all means to reduce the cost. In this fight, Free and SFR adopted a similar tactic as explained by our colleagues from the site l’Informed. To put it simply, both operators claim that the tax should not apply to certain items included in their respective TV offers. In 2022, Free and SFR were condemned by the courts for the first time for having paid smaller sums than planned by the CNC in 2015 and 2016.
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Free and SFR will have to pay their shares to the CNC
For his part, the internet troublemaker declared that it was not necessary to count in the tax rental of the Orange copper network (a service which represents between €6 and €10 per month on the bill for Revolution and Alicebox Initial subscribers). As for SFR, the operator led by Patrick Drahi had estimated that the tax base had to exclude the cost of renting the boxbut also the bouquet of online newspapers offered to subscribers since 2016. Unsurprisingly, the CNC had brushed aside the arguments of the two operatorsnotifying in passing an adjustment to each of a respective amount of 5.46 million and 31.5 million euros for the years 2015 and 2016.
In their right, Free and SFR appealed this decision. And once again, justice sided with the CNC towards the end of January 2024 : “the sums paid as part of an internet subscription allowing television reception are part of the tax base, including when these services or options do not, on their own, allow access to television”. In other words, the tax applies to the entire invoice for the subscribers’ TV offerregardless of its content.
As L’Informed points out, Free and SFR always have the option of turning to the Council of State in the hope of winning their case. But the chances of victory are slim, very slim. Let us add thatOrange could well be in the crosshairs of the CNC. A rather good student for years, the operator has reportedly reduced its payments in recent years. According to the institution, the arrears amount to 30 million euros. And she intends to get them back.