INTERVIEW
How to survive after the health crisis? This is the question that has been asked by all sectors of the economy for several weeks. Some, such as the automobile or aeronautics, will benefit from important aid plans. But how much for public broadcasting? "Nothing, not much at the moment," regrets André Gattolin. Guest of Europe 1 in Culture Médias, Senator LREM from Hauts-de-Seine and member at the Luxembourg Palace of the working group on the consequences of Covid-19 on audiovisual media detailed the proposals of the Upper House.
"I prefer a lower overall fee, but which reaches a wider audience"
Among the ten measures recommended by the Senate working group, André Gattolin, affirms that it is important to reform the license fee, a source of funding for state-owned television channels. For him, it should become a "universal tax". "We have always played with this fee by making it pseudo-universal, and relieving millions of households," laments the senator.
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"Personally, I prefer a lower overall fee, but one that reaches a wider audience," he explains. "The public service must be independent" financially, justifies André Gattolin. "Its resources must be guaranteed over time and the best way is to have a royalty and not budgeting."
"Publicity is going crazy"
Another shock measure from the Palais du Luxembourg in this objective of making public television more financially independent: the end of advertising. "There is a reality: publicity is in the process of breaking down, including on public service," notes André Gattolin. "So we must plan for its disappearance and replace its current contribution with other sources, because I am against a public television which would not be financed solely by the license fee," explains the elected LREM from Hauts-de-Seine.
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Content export: a success for the BBC, "a big cat" in France
André Gattolin is notably inspired by the BBC, a flagship channel across the Channel and which has become a world reference in television. "There are more than a billion of turnover (at the BBC, note ) which is generated by the derivative products and by the original productions", advance the senator. "Because they create formats, they create programs, they create films and documentaries that are exported. But in France, it's a big disaster," he laments at the microphone of Europe 1, regretting that the formats of France Televisions are for the most part redemptions and not original creations.
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"I believe that there must be a gradual phasing out of advertising, but there must be a second resource", correlated to other objectives. "Audience and publicity pushed to do better", he recalls, before concluding: "If the invention of new programs and their exportability bring in money, there must be that in cons -balance !"