France

Sarkozy puts an end to TV advertising as of 2009

Article published on the 2008-06-25 Latest update 2008-06-25 19:47 TU

President Sarkozy on a giant television screen as he delivers his speech
(Photo: Reuters)

French public television will not air commercials after 8 PM starting 1 January 2009. This is part of a plan put forward by French President Nicolas Sarkozy after he received – and revised – a parliamentary commission report on the future of public media on Wednesday. The Copé Commission, named after the head of the ruling UMP party, Jean-Francois Copé, had suggested a gradual elimination of television advertising.

Sarkozy justified speeding up the process: “I told myself, be careful: if we wait until September 2009, it will have been yet another year that viewers will have been hearing that things were going to change, and nothing happened.”

To make up for lost revenue, Sarkozy proposed a 0.9 per cent tax on profits from internet providers and telephone companies. This is higher than the 0.5 per cent recommended in the Copé report. The proposed tax would bring in 378 million euros, falling short of the 650 million euros in lost advertising revenue that the Commission estimated.

The French telecom federation called Sarkozy’s tax proposal “illegal” and “counter productive”, and warned that the tax will be passed directly to clients.

Advertising on public stations will be taxed an additional three per cent, as suggested in the report, bringing in some 80 million euros.

The report had also suggested pegging the television license tax to inflation in order to increase revenue directly from viewers. It had also suggested cutting Radio France Internationale’s portion of this tax, which sits at some 60 million euros, and represents 40 percent of its budget.

Sarkozy did not comment on the license tax, but a spokesperson said it was not ruled out. But cutting RFI’s portion is definitely out.

Sarkozy had announced his plan to cut TV advertising in January of this year. Public television and radio employees have already gone on strike once, protesting the initial plan.

Unions representing France Television reacted negatively to Sarkozy’s proposals, saying he put into question all the numbers. Unions say that public media will lose 800 million euros directly, and that the reform will cost a total of 1.2 billion euros.

The proposal will now be debated and formed into a law that will be voted on by parliament in September.