The public broadcasting merger project driven by Rachida Dati is falling behind schedule: its examination in the National Assembly was postponed on Thursday, while the entire sector is on strike to oppose it. MEPs were due to debate this lightning reform at first reading on Thursday and Friday. But faced with the congestion on the agenda, the government took the decision at midday to postpone it. The text may not be examined until June.
And this, while the timetable desired by the Minister of Culture was already very constrained, with a merger of public broadcasting scheduled for January 1, 2026. From the regional networks of France 3 or France Bleu to the Parisian headquarters, the entire sector is called to strike Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, the Radio France antennas were disrupted and the usual broadcasts were replaced by music. On the television side, the Franceinfo channel rebroadcast programs.
“It’s our survival that is at stake”
To ensure the retransmission of the debate Thursday evening on France 2 between Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and RN President Jordan Bardella, management planned to use external service providers, according to the unions. Wanting to “gather forces”, the Minister of Culture plans a transitional phase with a common holding company for public broadcasting on January 1, 2025, then the merger a year later. Some 16,000 employees are affected. In addition to France Télévisions and Radio France, the audiovisual juggernaut would also bring together Ina (National Audiovisual Institute) and France Médias Monde (RFI, France 24). The integration of this last group, however, is debated even in the presidential camp.
Within these four public companies, fears are acute for resources and jobs. A rally is planned near the Ministry of Culture on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. “It is our survival that is at stake,” said the Radio France unions during a general assembly on Wednesday, calling for “a radical message” to be sent through the strike. Concerns are particularly significant at Maison Ronde at the idea that radio could be swallowed up by TV.
In a column in Le Monde published on Wednesday, more than 1,100 Radio France employees, including presenters Léa Salamé, Nicolas Demorand, Guillaume Erner and Nagui, expressed their rejection of a “demagogic, ineffective and dangerous” project. “Why engage (the sector) in a merger which promises to be long, complex, anxiety-provoking for employees and without any real editorial objective?”, also ask the France Télévisions unions. To staff, Rachida Dati assured Sunday: “I want to guarantee you not only sustainability but (also) your strength” in a world of “exacerbated competition”, between platforms and social networks.
Questions “about the calendar”
“The political moment has come”, according to the minister, after an attempt at rapprochement by her predecessor Franck Riester stopped by Covid-19. “Obviously, we are not going to standardize either professions or activities,” she also insisted on Wednesday before the Senate. The giant company, called “France Médias”, would have a budget of four billion euros. To accelerate, the minister from LR relied on a bill from Senator Laurent Lafon (Centrist Union) programming a holding company, already adopted in June 2023 by the upper house.
“We are not opposed to the merger” but “we can wonder about the timetable”, underlined Laurent Lafon before the announcement of the postponement. The fate of France Médias Monde does not appear to be decided. Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné affirmed that the government was ultimately in favor of its exclusion from the single company. But discussions could be tight with the right, which is conversely attached to its inclusion. RN elected officials – in favor of a pure and simple privatization of public broadcasting – support the merger project.
Privatize? LR boss Eric Ciotti has “no taboos” either. For its part, the left holding torpedo like fusion. LFI sees in this project “the culmination of the denigration and weakening” of the public service operated by Emmanuel Macron. “It is not the return of the ORTF that will allow us to compete with Netflix,” add the environmentalists.