The government wants to abolish the audiovisual license fee, candidate Macron’s campaign promise, this year.
It was one of the promises made during candidate Macron’s short campaign. On March 7, during an exchange with the inhabitants of Poissy, in the Yvelines, for his first public outing as a presidential candidate, Emmanuel Macron had promised to abolish the TV license fee, in “consistency with the abolition of housing tax”, one of the key measures of his campaign in 2017. Since 2009, the contribution to public broadcasting has been payable by anyone who is subject to housing tax and who owns a television. It makes it possible to finance TV and radio channels in the public sector.
And the file should not drag. According to the report of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, the government wishes to abolish this fee – which currently amounts to 138 euros – as of this year, as part of the measures to support household purchasing power. “The contribution to public broadcasting will be permanently abolished from this year and the financing of public broadcasting will be ensured in compliance with the constitutional objective of pluralism and independence of the media”, indicates the government, in the transcription of a communication from the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire during the Council of Ministers, the last of the first five-year term and the Castex era.
The TV license fee, more than 3 billion euros net per year
In Bercy, according to AFP, it is confirmed that the “objective” is indeed to ratify this abolition “in 2022”, via the amending finance bill (PLFR) which will be presented after the legislative elections in June. Each year, it brings in more than 3 billion euros net.
The announcement of the forthcoming disappearance of the fee has raised fears about a risk of loss of independence of the public audiovisual media vis-à-vis the State. The mechanism that will replace this mode of financing has not yet been specified. This question was at the heart of a mission by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) and the General Inspectorate of Cultural Affairs (IGAC), mandated last October by the executive.