Franceinfo.fr is the digital information offer of the public audiovisual sector. Its teams and their production, at France Télévisions and Radio France, are partly financed by the license fee.
Replace the fee, but with what? This is the question that the government must answer, while Emmanuel Macron promised, during the presidential campaign, that the contribution to public broadcasting would be abolished this year. An evolution “consistent” to offer “purchasing power to the French”explained the president in March.
The “purchasing power” law containing the measure must be presented to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday July 6. If it is adopted, we will have to find a way to replace the 3.7 billion euros that this fee brings in and which finances public broadcasting.
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For the moment, the executive has sketched out a few avenues, notably evoking the establishment of a multi-annual budget directly earmarked in the state budget. But several questions remain unanswered.
What is the royalty?
In the amount of 138 euros in France and 88 euros overseas, the contribution to public broadcasting, the official name of the fee, concerns households equipped with a television, or “similar device”like a video projector, according to the Service-public.fr site. It is backed by the levy of the housing tax, but the latter is gradually being abolished by the government. Several categories of people, particularly with precarious income, are exempt. This tax allows public media, including France Télévisions and therefore franceinfo.frto be financed.
Created in 1933, the license fee originally only concerned radio stations and was intended to finance public radio stations. “Its model is inspired by that of the BBC, the British public service broadcasterexplains Patrick Evenomedia historian. At the time, it was estimated, given that there were only one and a half million jobs in France, that it would have been unfair to charge all French people.“ From 1980, the tax no longer concerns radio sets, but only television, although almost every household has one. In 2022, 27.61 million households are subject to it and 22.89 million actually pay it, according to a report by the Jean-Jaurès Foundation and the economist Julia Cage.
What does it fund?
The tax represented an amount of 3.7 billion euros in 2021. It is used to finance the various public broadcasting groups. Of this sum, 65% is allocated to France Télévisions, 15.9% to Radio France, 7.5% to Arte, 7% to France Médias Monde, 2.4% to INA and 2.1% to TV5 Monde. , according to a Senate report.
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The amount collected does not, however, represent the totality of the budgets of the public media, the license fee covering, for example, only 86.4% of Radio France’s budget. The rest is covered by the companies’ own funds, obtained in particular thanks to the advertising, although the latter is less present than on private channels or antennas. Public media also receive state subsidies “which compensate for the losses suffered by the public service following the abolition of advertising after 8 p.m. wanted by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009”explains Patrick Eveno.
Why remove it?
Several reasons are given. The first argument concerns the disappearance of the housing tax to which the fee was attached. The government also justifies its abolition by the decline in purchasing power. “This will make it possible to return 138 euros to 27 million French people”thus affirmed Gabriel AttalMinister of Public Accounts, on France Inter. “What we are eliminating is not a budget, it is a tax which many said was dated”he added, in response to those who are worried about seeing the budget of the public media melt.
What to replace it with?
For the moment, the government favors the track of integrating the budget of the public media into that of the State, which would therefore be validated by Parliament. In the campaign, Emmanuel Macron had proposed to define “a budget with multi-year visibility”the amount of which would be set for several years. A track confirmed by Rima Abdul Malakthe Minister of Culture, interviewed on France Inter. The project will be submitted to Parliament where the debates promise to be heated. The government is not alone in thinking about how to replace the levy. Several avenues are advancedsuch as the introduction of a new progressive contribution, paid by all households, or even businesses, or a tax on digital objects.
What are the fears?
The trade unions of the public media, but also actors from the world of culture and the left-wing parties are worried about a loss of independence of the public service with the disappearance of the license fee. “The disadvantage of budgeting is that you are much less immune to political vagaries, since the latter decides the budget”, summarizes Françoise Benhamou, cultural economist and signatory of a forum in The world against the abolition of this tax. A study, published by the European Audiovisual Observatory in February 2022, concluded that “I“independence and freedom of public broadcasting programming are closely linked to the need for broadcasters to be able to rely on an adequate funding system”.
The second fear of opponents is the reduction of public broadcasting budgets. “From the moment there is no more dedicated funding and we have to draw on the general budget of the State, we will end up being told that all this costs too much and that we have to cut spending. or close a channel, or even, as we sometimes hear, privatize”summed up the socialist senator David Assouline, during the demonstration organized by the public media unions on June 28, quoted by France 24. A statement shared by Bruno Patino, the boss of Arte France, who was worried about the AFP to see his channel disappear.
How are our neighbors doing?
The rules vary greatly from country to country. In Italy, “the fee is included in the electricity bill”explains Julia Cagé in her report, while in Germany, an agency controlled by public channels collects the tax “in order to ensure the total independence of public broadcasting“. The economist also praises the Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish financing models, as France Inter reports. All three countries have replaced their royalty with a progressive tax. In Sweden, 1% of taxable income is deducted, up to a limit of 126 euros; in Finland, it is the companies that pay this tax and not the households; in Norway, a scale per bracket has been defined.
According to the European Broadcasting Union (PDF)the amount of the fee can range from 36 euros at Portugal 300 euros in Austria. Lhe principle of this contribution to public broadcasting is not called into question only in France. In the United Kingdom, the amount of the “license fee”which is used to finance the BBC, has been blocked for several years. The Conservative government of Boris Johnson has also announced its intention to abolish it. As for Spain or the Netherlands, they have not set up a license fee, the public media budget is integrated directly into that of the State.
What do the French think?
In 2019, nearly 85% of them said they were in favor of the abolition of the fee, according to an Ifop poll published in The Sunday newspaper. But alone 20.9% of the French are in favor of “a contribution deducted each year from the State budget”according a June 2022 survey by the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. According to the study, 34.5% speak out for “a new earmarked contribution”.
I didn’t have time to read everything, can you give me a summary?
The government intends to abolish the contribution to public broadcasting this summer, as Emmanuel Macron promised during the presidential campaign. This taxdamount of 138 euros, brings in 3.7 billion euros each year and is used to finance the public audiovisual media of France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde, Arte, INA and TV5 Monde. The executive says he wants to restore purchasing power to the French.
To replace the license fee, the government intends to integrate the financing of public media into the state budget. But the unions, the actors of the cultural sector and the left parties are worried about a questioning of the independence of the public service, as well as a budget reduction in the years to come. According to a recent study, if the French are in favor of the abolition of the fee, they are only a minority in favor of integration into the state budget.