Grandstand. On the occasion of his first presidential campaign meeting, Monday March 7, Emmanuel Macron announced his desire to abolish the contribution to public broadcasting (CAP), previously called TV fee, in the event of his re-election. At a time when information has become a strategic issue in the war between Russia and Ukraine, while Donald Trump’s recent mandate has been marked by the polarized treatment of the campaign by Fox News, and the press economy is impacted by the growing weight of platforms, this announcement raises the question of the future of audiovisual public service and beyond the independence of the media.
Heir to the ORTF, the audiovisual public service represents a group of 17,000 employees, working within France Télévisions (France 2, France 3, etc.), Radio France (France Inter, Franceinfo, etc.), Arte, France Médias Monde (France 24, RFI, etc.), the National Audiovisual Institute and TV5 Monde. The 138 euros, fixed by Parliament, paid by 28 million French people, had brought in 3.8 billion euros in 2020, making it possible to cover most of its operating costs, with the exception of a deficit. amounting to almost 50 million per year.
If it aroused many reactions, this announcement was however expected. In its current form, the fee is indeed backed by the housing tax, which will end in 2023, in accordance with the campaign promise of the En Marche candidate! in 2017. The announcement of the current president suggests three scenarios: the establishment of a new funding system in equal proportions to guarantee the autonomy of the public service; an eventual reduction in its funding; or its privatization, partial or complete, called for by the candidates Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen.
This choice has three dimensions: the scope of the service, at local, national and international level; the amount of funding; and the collection medium. From this point of view, several observations can be made.
TV is no longer the dominant medium
First of all, public broadcasting is a fixed cost economy, with high programming expenses. For reasons of independence and economic structure, it requires long-term funding, free from the risk of annual cuts. In addition, the amount of the CAP remains low: 138 euros for metropolitan France and 88 euros for the overseas departments. By way of comparison, in Germany, it amounts to 220 euros, for a total of 8 billion euros in public revenue benefiting the ARD and ZDF groups.
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