Since January 1, 2022, the new audiovisual and digital communication regulatory authority, Arcom, is officially in operation.
At the dawn of this new year, what will the French audiovisual landscape be able to offer us? An avalanche of podcasts and videos on demand of course! And which will surge in 2022 on our smartphones, tablets, computers and speakers or connected TVs. But all these 100% digitized programs will now have to comply with the European directive called “Audiovisual media services” which has been transcribed into French law, warns theArcom.
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The new French regulator born from the merger between the CSA, the Superior council of audio-visual and the Hadopi, the High Authority for the diffusion of works and the protection of the rights on Internet thus intends to regulate the platforms of video by subscription, the networks social and online sites with at least 5 million unique visits per month.
Internet Cop
One of Arcom’s missions is to fight against the piracy of digital works, the manipulation of information and online hatred. Wider powers which would allow it, at least theoretically, to force the large online platforms to set up systems to “fight against Infox or the dissemination of hateful content”.
? The CSA and Hadopi become the@Arcom_fr, the French regulator of audiovisual and digital communication. It acts for a pluralist audiovisual offer that respects rights and freedoms, defends the #creation, participate in the development of a safer internet ?
– Arcom (@Arcom_fr) December 31, 2021
The illegal sites of broadcasting of audiovisual works are also in the crosshairs of Arcom which is responsible ” to develop blacklists of illegal sites in conjunction with the rights holderss ”, explains Isabelle Wekstein, partner and founder of Wan Avocats:“ One of the main objectives of the law which enabled the creation of Arcom was to fight more effectively against the illegal broadcasting of live audiovisual content on the web. The modification of the intellectual property code provides for the establishment of a blacklist system for illegal sites that Arcom can make public. The Authority is authorized to register the names and actions of these platforms which seriously and repeatedly bear on the rights of the owners of audiovisual, cultural and great novelty programs sporting events illegally relayed online. These innovative digital mechanisms to curb illicit “lives” and “streaming” are tools that will enable more rapid action against pirating professionals. “.
A policeman, but also a support
A new policeman who also gives himself the mission of supporting the French audiovisual industry with concrete actions that facilitate the economic vitality of television and radio groups, by ensuring, for example, that American platforms such as Amazon Prime, Netflix , Apple TV and Disney + invest a part of their turnover in the financing of audiovisual and cinematographic works in France.
Arcom has a budget of almost 47 million euros, corresponding to the addition of the resources that were previously allocated to the CSA and to Hadopi. A budget that Roch-Olivier Maistre, the president of the new Authority, considers, on the other hand, almost insufficient, given the scope of its missions, by already asking the government to strengthen its human and financial resources, from here to 2023.