The Minister of Culture defends France Télévisions against the attacks of TF1 and M6

France Televisions: 1, TF1, M6 etc. : 0. In the “war” which has opposed private channels and France Télévisions for several days, the public group has just won a battle.

At the Cannes Film Festival, the Minister of Culture defended public broadcasting, responding indirectly to the ociation of Private Channels (ACP), which includes TF1, M6, Altice (BFMTV etc.), Canal+. These believe, in fact, that France Télévisions walks too much on their toes and does not respect its public service missions.

“It is not by weakening the public channels that the future will be bright”, replied Rima Abdul Mala during a conference organized by the CNC (National Center for Cinema and Animated Image) in Cannes, referring to “attacks”. “The public service missions are fulfilled,” she added, a way of responding to her critics.

While acknowledging that “there is a balance to be found around the place of private channels as much as public channels”, she welcomed the public service hearings and the essments made by Arcom, the sector regulator. She even concluded this declaration of love by stating: “Congratulations to public broadcasting! “.

new stone

These remarks therefore come to add a new stone to the debate which has been agitating the sector for ten days, and which had begun by a letter from the ACP to Elisabeth Borne. In this letter, the private channels pointed in particular to “surprisingly commercial programming” for France 2, denouncing an under-exposure of its public service missions, citing documentaries, live shows or even the abundance of police series and American films, supporting figures from Arcom.

They demanded that the public service be subject to obligations per channel, as is the case for the private sector. Finally, according to their calculations, 25% of France Télévisions’ advertising turnover is made at times that are in principle protected by the ban on advertising after 8 p.m.

This letter had provoked the ire of France Télévisions, which is preparing to send itself a letter to the public authorities, to defend itself against “false arguments”. In the process, Delphine Ernotte had also given an interview with the “Figaro”, last week, evoking a “Characterized aggression against the public service”, and defending point by point the differentiation of his group.

This conflict by letter was still raised a notch Friday with the sending of a press release by the ACP. In this document, it indicates in particular to maintain its analyzes and figures, in particular on the programming of France 2.