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Regulation at the service of diversity?

During the last event of this 8th edition of the International Classic Film Market (MIFC), the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) came to present its work to safeguard heritage cinema. And the issue of SVOD platforms.

 

To close this 8th edition of the International Classic Film Market, a meeting with Roch-Olivier Maistre, President of the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) was organized by the MIFC. During this meeting, moderated by Jérôme Soulet (Catalog director at Gaumont), the President of the CSA discussed the audiovisual policy of the institution and the missions that allow the preservation of heritage cinema, as well as the thorny issue of dematerialized platforms. "The question that we often ask ourselves is 'But what does the CSA do'," Roch-Olivier Maistre began. "We've often seen it flourish on social networks in recent years. It is important to specify from the outset that the CSA has a primarily cultural dimension. We have been a French exception for almost 30 years".

Jérome Soulet, moderator of the meeting for the occasion, also reaffirmed the mission of the CSA within the framework of the protection of a young public: "We have, we must not hide the fact, in our respective catalogs, films which can offend the sensibility of the youngest. The CSA is also there to ensure that age bans are respected". Roch-Olivier Maistre continued: "We are not only the gendarmes of the audiovisual industry. In the morning, when I arrive at the office, I don't wonder on whose fingers I'm going to type today. Our mission is above all regulation. Currently, platforms like Amazon or Netflix, social networks like Facebook and Twitter have changed our work. Right now, we're extremely careful about messages of hatred and apology for terrorism on the Internet."

The President of the CSA first came back to the adoption of the ADM directive, for Audiovisual Media Services. This transposition bill is first and foremost an ordinance. The vote on the enabling law of the ordinance will be made at a meeting of the joint commission on October 30, 2020. But this vote must be unanimous in the Senate as well as in the National Assembly. The bill will then be sent for consultation to the CSA as soon as there is an agreement of both assemblies and then of the Council of State. Roch-Olivier Maistre assures that "the transposition will be done before the end of 2020."

The President of the CSA also came back on the SMAD decree, for the Service of Audiovisual Media on Demand. A decree for the determination and reconstitution of a new "tax base" applied to SVOD platforms. The draft text will be put out for public consultation at the end of October 2020. This "tax base" will be the basis of the tax calculation, the element on which the rate (tax percentage) will be applied. In addition, the calculation of the tax (the famous "tax base") is a bit difficult to determine. If for Netflix the calculation will be "relatively simple", because the platform has only a single SVOD activity, for Amazon it will be much more complicated. The President of the CSA explains this by the offer of the latter, "a hybrid offer" where to the initial logistics has been added music and video services.

Roch-Olivier Maistre developed the probability of variable rates according to two parameters: the place of the platform in the famous media chronology (the more it respects the French vision, the less it will pay) and the distinction between international rights and French rights. Taxation may be different depending on the distribution within the platform between cinema and audiovisual (series, programs, all supply excluding films). The decree will set a floor tax rate for cinema but this still raises questions because the audiovisual share is also important on some of these dematerialized platforms.

Finally, the President of the CSA explained the distinction between production and broadcasting: The question of the exclusivity of the rights owned by the SVOD platforms was discussed because it raises problems, especially in terms of the stakes of circulation of works. The CSA would propose to move from an exclusive acquisition of the rights of the platforms to a possible appropriation of the rights of independent productions. Roch-Olivier Maistre concluded his intervention on the possible agreement of new entrants with the CSA in the manner of traditional television channels, with obligations and rights in addition to possible sanctions from the CSA if this agreement is not respected. He also evoked the enhancement of Heritage works in the future.

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