Last year again, required from the CSA the marshalling of all the energy and skills of its services and Collège (board). As regards the Collège, it was partially renewed with the appointment on 13 March 2004 of Marie-Laure Denis replacing Jacqueline de Guillenchmidt who was appointed to the Conseil Constitutionnel.

• The laws passed in June and July 2004 introduced far-reaching changes to the legal framework applicable to the audiovisual industry.

Under the new legal framework, the Conseil’s authority over televisions and radio is extended to all broadcasting media and in particular to the new electronic communications networks such as ADSL over the Internet ; or the mobile network. The Conseil has also been endowed with greater jurisdiction in terms of economic regulation, as regards terrestrial digital television, and also to settle disputes between service broadcasters and distributors. In addition, the CSA now has jurisdiction to impose financial sanctions for criminal actions such as, for instance, incitement to racial hatred. It has greater powers as regards non-European channels broadcast by satellites falling within the jurisdiction of France.

• The considerably large task of overhauling and updating the agreements with cable and satellite channels which had been initiated in 2003, was almost finished in 2004 as regards the 104 French-speaking channels with which the CSA has entered into a legal agreement.

The Conseil used the occasion of such updating to the new legal framework, to review all provisions of the legal agreements and in particular the oldest one which were no longer adapted. For existing services, changes were proposed by means of supplemental agreements. For new services, a new standard agreement was adopted. Discussions dealt mainly with the new provisions relating to investment in audiovisual production and cinema. The new updated and strengthened agreements meet three objectives : introducing obligations common to all services, canceling unjustified historical discrepancies and rendering the new agreements closer to those applicable to terrestrial digital television. The new scheme relating to children protection was also included in the new agreements.

• Other major issue, a difficult one : regulating non-European Union channels broadcast in France via satellite.

In 2004, the CSA was the first ever regulatory body to discontinue the broadcasting of programs from outside of Europe which posed a serious problem due to incitement to hatred. The CSA’s objective is to establish, in France and in Europe, a regulated television area, free of any program incompatible with the law. Such an objective may only be reached through greater cooperation between Member States. For such purpose, we initiated in December of 2004, a dialogue with our European partners and the European Commission in order to pave the way for a concerted regulation of this issue within the European Union.

• For the CSA, whose role in connection with pluralism is crucial, 2004 was the occasion of 5 elections.

Pursuant to the mission with which it has been entrusted under the law, the CSA monitored compliance by audiovisual media with the requirements in terms of pluralism on the occasion of the élections régionales et cantonales, the European elections, and the elections in Corsica, Polynésie and Nouvelle-Calédonie. In the context of the 2004 European elections, the Conseil completed its reform to modernize and relax the conditions applicable to the production and direction of party political broadcasts. Such overhaul enabled to increase a hitherto decreasing audience for such programs.

• The protection of children and adolescents is an area in which the CSA exercises constant vigilance and to which it devotes continuing attention : 2004 was no exception.

Several determining decisions were adopted by the CSA : a deliberation relating to open-air radio shows, on 26 February, and a recommendation setting forth the rules for the broadcasting of television programs prohibited for minors, on 17 December. In 2004, for the first time, the CSA produced the television campaign for the youth rating signaling scheme which was broadcast by hertzian channels and most cable and satellite channels between 3 and 18 January 2005. Through such campaign, the key message of which was « on television, your children don’t see what you see », the CSA tried to make parents aware of the need to protect minors and to encourage them to control their children’s access to television.

• For the Conseil, 2004 was the last stretch before the arrival of TNT (terrestrial digital television), a project which required great tenacity and work. This « positioning in the starting-blocks » took the form of the issuance of a launch schedule.

The CSA’s efforts to develop terrestrial digital television in France paid off : the launch date was set for 31 March for the fourteen free-of-charge channels to broadcast in terrestrial digital mode. During a first phase, 35 % of the French population will be able to receive the programs by means of a simple adapter and the number will reach 85 % of the population in 2007. In addition, the CSA has set the launch of terrestrial digital pay channels to take place in September of 2005.

On 14 December 2004, the CSA also launched a new call for tenders for eight channels available on digital terrestrial television. They will be allocated during the spring of 2005 upon completion of the selection process.

We are collectively proud of having brought this great public interest project to completion.

• In 2004, the CSA continued its efforts to develop local television, in particular through the launch of calls for tenders in eight cities. France will soon have about ten new local channels. The CSA must assist in the implementation of such televisions in order to help them reach an economic balance in the context of a sufficiently relaxed legal framework. The viability of these proximity channels was strengthened, in particular through the opening of television advertising to supermarket distribution.

• Radio was at the heart of the Conseil’s concerns : a large-scale study on the use and optimization of the frequency plan was initiated.

The process started with the creation on 3 February of a working group called « FM 2006 ». As most current authorizations will have expired by the end of 2006, the CSA is seeking, in consultation with broadcasters, ways of improving the use of the FM band. The CSA’s mission is to foster freedom of choice for the listeners to the largest extent possible, through a richer radio supply and a more consistent frequency plan. A large-scale consultation of the broadcasters was launched in October that should yield several proposals.

• Two appointments were made by the CSA in 2004 : those of the chairs of Radio France and of Radio France internationale, for five year terms. The integration in 2004 of Réseau France outre-mer (RFO) into France Télévisions also required the designation by the CSA of a director to represent l’outre-mer (the overseas départements and territoires) at the board of directors of the government holding and an additional three at the board of directors of RFO.

The respect of pluralism, the protection of children and adolescents, the prohibition of calls to hatred on grounds of race, gender, mores or religion, are the missions that the CSA must fulfill in an ever changing communications context, where borders are becoming increasingly blurred. More than ever in 2004, was the CSA confronted with the issue of the place and nature of regulation in a context where usage, communications services and media merge thanks to digital technology which makes the principles and rules that structured our communications world, seem obsolete. From local to international, hertzian to cable and satellite, analogue to digital, the mutations of the technological, industrial and legal environment create new challenges for the regulation of audiovisuals. These unprecedented developments carry with them significant specific challenges and raise decisive technological and legal issues on which the CSA intends working in the future.