The members of Arcom (French Authority for the regulation of audiovisual and digital communication) did not hang around.
Monday, after hearing the three candidates for the presidency of Radio France, they decided to renew for five additional years the outgoing Sibyle Veil, appointed in April 2018 after the ousting of Mathieu Gallet.
Since Jean-Marie Cavada, at the head of public radio from 1998 to 2004, none of the leaders of Radio France had been able to re-election for a second term.
The renewal of Sibyle Veil, who did the ENA in the same promotion as Emmanuel Macron, is anything but a surprise.
Its results were generally welcomed by ARCOM last July.
Under his direction, the audiences of the antennas of Radio France continued to climb to their highest level.
The podcast offer has expanded and won over a large audience.
Despite several strikes, and some scandals about the proliferation of fixed-term contracts, the leader has done everything to respect the plan of 60 million euros in savings demanded by the government.
Its main project will be to reflect on the financing of public broadcasting, while parliament has voted to end the fee, in accordance with Emmanuel Macron's campaign promises.
Sibyle Veil has spoken out against any merger with France Télévisions, and favors joint projects with public television, such as the franceinfo channel or the France Bleu / France 3 joint morning shows.
Again the choice of stability
During the auditions, Sibyle Veil faced the journalist Florent Chatain, passed by France 3 Lyon, France Inter and Europe 1, as well as Maïa Wirgin.
The latter, secretary general of the Court of Auditors, is a great connoisseur of public broadcasting, since she headed the cabinet of Mathieu Gallet then was his secretary general, before being appointed cultural adviser to Edouard Philippe at Matignon, in 2019 and 2020. It campaigns to develop more and more bridges between Radio France and its cousins France Télévisions, Arte, the National Audiovisual Institute, France Médias Monde and TV5 Monde.
But after years of great reversals ARCOM has again chosen stability.
In the summer of 2020, Delphine Ernotte also succeeded herself at the helm of France Télévisions.