On the occasion of the La Rochelle Fiction Festival which ends on Sunday September 17, focus on the major developments in television in the face of major internet platforms and artificial intelligence.
It may soon be outdated to talk about TV channels. Who says channel says linearity, broadcasting a program schedule, while series, films, documentaries and even entertainment shows are increasingly consumed when we want them on the platforms. France tv, Arte tv, MyTF1 or 6Play have platforms that count enormously in the audiences of audiovisual groups. You can find web series that you won’t see on the air or all the episodes of a series, sometimes even in advance, before its broadcast. You can also find connected, thematic and digital-only channels, or formats, such as C What the infoa television news program for young people for social networks, launched this week by France Télévisions.
At the same time, the platforms, the real ones, Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video, already broadcast live programs like Ligue 1, and they come to eat the wool off the backs of the channel broadcasters by creating subscription offers with advertising.
It is therefore this notion of platformization of television in the face of the transformation of the platforms themselves which was at the heart of the debates in La Rochelle, at the Festival de la fiction. Streaming giants often offer opportunities for international exposure, but the work must be properly remunerated. However, the American copyright system favors lump sum payment without taking into account, as in Europe, copyright which depends on its viewing. This is also the whole issue of the strike of screenwriters and actors in Hollywood which is in its third month. More than an increase in the minimum wage, American screenwriters and actors are asking for revenue sharing based on the success of their films or series on the platforms.
What about artificial intelligence?
As in the United States, a danger is emerging in Europe: that of artificial intelligence. Everything from the script to the special effects, the setting, the music, the translations, even the characters themselves, can all be shaped by AI. Even if it means destroying the notion of author, of artist, which carries little weight in the face of wonderful profits. The conditions are ripe for this, with globalized platforms that seek to please everyone and a regulation on AI which is still under discussion in Parliament in Strasbourg. Obligation of transparency, subsidies directed towards productions carried out by humans… Author societies are already working on the good system of protection and recognition of artists.