The Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, wants
“single governance”
this year for public broadcasting, which includes France Télévisions and Radio France, she declared Tuesday during a hearing in the Senate.
The objective is to have a
“more powerful, more efficient”
public audiovisual sector , and
“this year is the last shooting window”
, assured the minister, heard by the Senate Culture and Communication Committee. .
She had already said several times in recent weeks that she wanted to
“bring together the forces”
of public broadcasting: for this,
“we need a single governance”
, she argued before the senators, saying she wanted
“ move forward without any taboo
.
“To be able to have a single governance, to merge, to push for cooperation, for synergies - I was going to say merger -, in any case that there is efficiency in governance and functioning, it is a goal that we must all have
,” insisted the minister.
According to her, it would be
“inconsistent to make a reform (...) after 2025”
, a year which will see the renewal of the mandate of the president of Arcom (the audiovisual regulator), Roch-Olivier Maistre, and of the president from France Télévisions, Delphine Ernotte Cunci.
Rachida Dati intends to rely on the work of the Senate, which voted in June 2023 in favor of the creation of a holding company overseeing France Télévisions and Radio France.
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According to her,
“this reform will stand on two legs: the evolution of governance”
and
“a lasting response to the question of the method of financing”
.
On the second point, his
“fight”
is to obtain a
“sanctuaryization”
of the current mechanism, that is to say the financing of public broadcasting by a sum taken from VAT.
This mechanism was put in place to compensate for the removal of the fee in the summer of 2022, and is supposed to end at the end of 2024. To make it sustainable,
“a modification of the Lolf”
(organic law relating to finance laws) is required.
), the financial constitution of France, recalled Ms. Dati.
These projects have the approval of Delphine Ernotte Cunci.
“I fully support what she proposed
,” said the head of France Télévisions on March 7 before the National Assembly's commission of inquiry into the allocation of TNT frequencies (digital terrestrial television).
For her part, the president of Radio France, Sibyle Veil, is opposed to the idea of a merger of the two public groups.