Only the statement is authentic,
Madam Senator [Pauline Martin]Madam Deputy [Pascale Bay],
Mr. Director General of the CNC, dear Olivier Henrard,
Mr. Head of Media Department of the Ministry of Culture, dear Ludovic Berthelot,
Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,
I am very pleased to welcome you this afternoon at Arcom on the occasion of this conference dedicated to the presentation of our assessment study of the decree on audiovisual media services on demand, or “SMAD decree” for intimate. This study was carried out in collaboration with the national center for cinema and animated images and in conjunction with the DGMIC. First of all, I would like to thank the teams from our two houses involved in the preparation of the study which will be presented to you shortly and, more broadly, in the organization of this conference.
I particularly salute for Arcom the involvement of Antoine Boilley, who joined our college in January 2023 and since that date has taken charge of the working group dedicated to audiovisual, cinematographic and musical creation, as well as our creative direction, led by Raphaël Berger, with the daily involvement on this file of Laure Saccone, in charge of controlling financing obligations. I would also like to thank our studies department, which contributed greatly to this work. This is an opportunity for me to underline the importance of the cultural dimension of regulation, which has expanded considerably in recent years.
The SMAD decree of June 22, 2021, which translated the ambition of the SMA directive of 2018, has in fact opened a new era for the financing of creation.
I would like to remind you that national television publishers are the primary financiers of national production, with obligations defined according to their turnover and which can be allocated, depending on their programming and their economic model, to particular genres. . In 2022, the contributions of linear television publishers amounted to more than €1.2 billion: we will shortly publish the 2023 data, which once again highlights the mobilization of the sector.
This financing model based on the commitment of traditional audiovisual players contributes directly to the vitality of national creation; it is at the heart of the relationships that the regulator maintains with regulated stakeholders, whether in frequency application exercises, in the development of agreements and in the control of obligations. In this regard, we are fortunate to have players in France who are particularly committed in this area, whether public or private.
I am thinking, in particular, of the support of France Télévision for audiovisual creation and that of Canal + for cinematographic creation. The commitment of our national actors is also part of the reasons why the regulator is particularly vigilant with their financing: public broadcasting must benefit from allocated and sustainable resources and the economic model of our private media must be protected and strengthened.
Faced with the evolution of uses, with in particular a notable shift towards on-demand consumption on international platforms, it had become essential to evolve our model. This development was necessary to correct regulatory asymmetries between national players and international platforms, since the latter, which targeted the French public, were not subject to production financing obligations; it was also necessary to give new impetus to our cultural model, adapting it to the new realities of the environment of creation and consumption of audiovisual and cinematographic content.
This is the whole ambition of the SMA directive and the whole purpose of the SMAD decree. The audiovisual regulator immediately mobilized to implement it. From December 2021, Arcom managed to integrate these new players smoothly – and without litigation. The regulator thus secured the financing of these actors by entering into agreements and notifying their obligations to the main international SMADs targeting the French public; France was then, with Italy, the only member state in Europe to have implemented the framework of the directive so quickly. It did so with particularly ambitious contribution levels, without equivalent in the rest of the Union, with obligations particularly directed towards heritage works and original French expression.
The integration of these players made it possible to offer new financing to our production, whether in audiovisual or cinematographic production: in 2022, SMAD expenditure corresponded to nearly €350M, or 20% of the total expenditure retained under of audiovisual and cinema production, up more than 12% compared to 2021. Since the entry into force of the decree, this amounts to more than €866 million which were declared by only three of these foreign subscription video-on-demand services – Disney+, Netflix and Prime Video, which are the subject of a specific analysis in our study -, including €624 million for the pre-financing of European works or original French expression.
The agreements signed with the regulator were often subsequently enriched by inter-professional agreements with the sector.
The commitments of major streaming players underline the strength of our cultural model, which knows how to adapt to changing uses and the market; they also highlight the desire of these actors to integrate harmoniously into this model, to reinforce the dynamism of our productive fabric, whose actors have been able to take advantage of the new demands expressed by the public and by these video actors at request ; they finally profoundly changed the work of Arcom. Streaming players are today daily contacts of the regulator and are fully integrated into our control missions, in a constructive working climate; I would like to take this opportunity to underline the importance of transparency in the information transmitted regarding investments in accomplishing our missions. Finally, I note that the French public, like the international public, welcomes the programs and works carried out by the SMAD, particularly in the context of the implementation of their obligations. As you know, the public interest is one of the regulator’s compasses and we can of course only rejoice at this concrete impact of our collective progress.
We could be satisfied with this satisfaction and observe the developments driven by the SMAD decree. But as a good auditor, I know that all public policy must be evaluated, that we must always question the relevance of a framework, its effects and its future.
This is why we wanted to engage with the CNC in a reflection on the implementation of this decree, more than three years after its publication and now that we have sufficient hindsight to carry out this exercise.
One clarification, however: assessment does not mean calling into question, and even less a clean slate. While the SMA directive is increasingly under attack, including at the European level, I believe it is urgent to consolidate its legacy. Fabien Raynaud and Hortense Naudascher recently submitted to the president of the CNC an interesting report on the balance of the audiovisual and cinematographic industry in the era of large platforms, the proposals of which will be useful in the phases to come.
I am convinced that the excellence of a cultural model cannot be decreed: it is built, with regulations, regulators, a committed sector, mobilized stakeholders, all of you here present. This is why we wanted to conduct our work in a spirit of responsibility.
Antoine Boilley and Cécile Lacoue, director of studies and foresight at the CNC, will present the results to you in a moment. But I give in before and without later the floor to Olivier Henrard. Thank you for listening.
