This must be the culmination of a project announced many times by the government for several years. Starting this Thursday, May 23, the National Assembly will examine the proposed law for the reform of public broadcasting. Priority file of the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, since her entry into government in January, it notably plans in the long term a merger of the different groups (France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde and the INA) in order to guarantee the ” strength” of the sector in the face of competition from platforms.
But this project is strongly criticized by employees of the companies concerned and by the left of the political spectrum, who see it as a destabilization of public broadcasting and fear budget cuts.
What does the reform contain?
This text, defended by Rachida Dati as a response to “guarantee not only sustainability but also the strength” of public broadcasting, must lead to the “merger” of the different groups: France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde and ‘INA. According to the Minister of Culture, public broadcasting has “undeniable strengths” but today “dispersed”, which exposes it to a “risk of weakening” in the face of competition from international platforms like Netflix.
To do this, a first step must take place in 2025: the creation of a “holding company” at the head of a group bringing together the four groups. Before the merger, therefore, scheduled for January 1, 2026. In all, nearly 16,000 employees would be affected by the creation of this new super-group, which would then be managed by a single person. “The political moment has come,” declared Rachida Dati, who boasts the support of Emmanuel Macron, “very attached to public broadcasting”.
Another important subject of the reform: the financing of public broadcasting. Since the abolition of the fee in 2022, the sector has been provisionally financed by a fraction of VAT. Two deputies, Quentin Bataillon (Renaissance) and Jean-Jacques Gaultier (LR) have at the same time already prepared a text of law to ensure long-term financing of public broadcasting via a “levy on revenue” from the State budget, to the image of what is being done for local communities. The new company, “France Médias”, should have a budget of 4 billion euros per year. The government also assures that the aim is not to make savings, and that the reform should even have a cost in the first years.
What is the legislative calendar?
To speed up the process and build on an existing legislative base, Rachida Dati chose to take up a bill from Senator Laurent Lafon, from the centrist Union group, establishing the creation of a holding company for public broadcasting. This text had already been voted on and adopted in June 2023 by the Senate. Thus, examined in committee at the National Assembly last week, this bill will be debated in the hemicycle of the National Assembly this Thursday and Friday. A solemn vote by deputies on the entire text is then scheduled for Monday May 28.
The text will then be re-examined in the Senate, where it should be the source of new debates and modifications. In any case, it has already been included in the upper house’s calendar for June 19.
What reactions within public broadcasting?
As for the public broadcasting unions, it is an understatement to say that the announcement of this merger was very poorly received. A strike notice was filed this Thursday and Friday within the four groups, during the debates in the National Assembly. Disturbances are expected on the various public television and radio stations.
Particularly mobilized, the Radio France unions fear in particular that this project will ultimately lead to the absorption of radio by television. “This reform calls into question the editorial and budgetary independence of Radio France, guarantor of a real audio strategy – radio and digital – acclaimed by the public,” they argue in a press release. For their part, the France Télévisions unions denounce a project which “destabilizes the public sector”. “At a time when public broadcasting is fully playing its role in the face of private media controlled by a handful of billionaires, why engage it in a merger that promises to be long, complex, anxiety-inducing for employees, and without any real editorial objective? “, they add.
This Wednesday, more than 1,100 Radio France employees, including presenters Léa Salamé, Nicolas Demorand and Nagui, published an article in the newspaper The world in which they reject this merger, describing it as a “demagogic, ineffective and dangerous” project, fearing in particular a “democratic” risk. “We fear for the independence of your public service media when we appoint, for this superstructure, a single CEO, with full powers,” they point out.
At the management level of the different groups, reactions are also mixed. The president of Radio France, Sibyle Veil, assured in an interview with The gallery in March that a “merger of public broadcasting would weaken radio”. The boss of France Télévisions, Delphine Ernotte, on the other hand said she was rather favorable to this project, describing it as a “choice of responsibility” Figaroparticularly in terms of public spending.
What political reactions?
On the left, this proposal has unsurprisingly been the subject of considerable criticism. The La France insoumise group said it was in “total opposition” to the creation of the France Médias holding company, explaining that the implementation of this project “would be the outcome of a process of denigration and financial weakening of public broadcasting carried out methodically since the arrival of Emmanuel Macron to power in 2017. The government is moving forward “blindly”, with a “wet finger” policy, launched the socialist deputy Iñaki Echaniz, while the elected environmentalist Sophie Taillé-Polian affirmed: “This is not the return of the “ORTF which will allow us to compete with Netflix.”
The National Rally should for its part support the bill: if the far-right group recalled being in favor of a “privatization of French audiovisual television and radio with the exception of external audiovisual” through MP Philippe Balard to RFI, he stressed that it was a “small step forward ” in this direction.
But the heart of the legislative battle should, once again, be played out in the majority’s dealings with the right. The Modem group, through MP Erwan Balanant, declared “not seeing the point of the merger amendment” of all public broadcasting, considering that “the notion of holding company seemed to go in the right direction and allow everyone to remain with their own prerogatives and specificities.” A subject is also blocking centrist elected officials: the integration of France Médias Monde, which brings together France 24 and RFI, within the holding company. “We must give France Médias Monde this freedom to exist, to carry the voice of France with the specificity that it has today,” he explains.
In committee, the deputies finally voted for the exclusion of France Médias Monde from the future holding company, following bitter discussions. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, also affirmed that the government was ultimately in favor of its exclusion from the single company. A compromise that could suit the MoDem… but not the LR elected officials, who fear for the future financing of the group, and have made the integration of France 24 and RFI into the holding company an essential condition for their support. However, as is often the case, it is very difficult to imagine the government succeeding in getting the text voted on without the votes of LR deputies and especially senators from the right-wing party, who have a majority in the Upper House.