Work of the CSA in 2005

As is the case every two years, the partial renewal of the Conseil’s Board took place in January. The President of the Republic appointed Ms. Michèle Reiser to replace Mr. Yvon Le Bars ; the chairman of the Assemblée nationale appointed Ms. Sylvie Genevoix to replace Mr. Joseph Daniel ; and the Chairman of the Sénat renewed the term of office of Ms. Marie-Laure Denis who had been appointed on March 13 to cover the end of Ms. Jacqueline de Guillenchmidt term.

One of the main events of 2005 was the launch on March 31 of digital terrestrial television (DTT). This new offer of programs was made up at first of fourteen free channels which were immediately available to 30 per cent of the population living in metropolitan France. As early as October, they and an additional four new channels reached 50 per cent of the population.

The arrival of DTT on French TV screens was the outcome of a great deal of work spanning several years. It met with great enthusiasm on the part of the audience. At the end of 2005, approximately 1,700,000 set-top-boxes had been sold or were being rented.

Throughout the year, the CSA devoted many of its plenary sessions to the implementation of DTT but also worked to devise the best possible plan to speed up the roll out of DTT so that it be available to everyone in France.

However, even though much of its energies were devoted to the DTT project, much work also done in many other areas that are high on the Conseil’s agenda.

As regards local hertzian television, four new analog channels received a license to broadcast and the licenses of an additional three were renewed (without calls for tenders). Calls for tenders were also launched for the creation of three new channels and the Conseil launched a public consultation regarding the roll out of digital local channels in the Paris area.

Two elections took place in 2005 for which party political campaign broadcasts on radio and television were organized by the CSA : the by-election to the Assemblée of French Polynesia in February and, the referendum on the draft constitutional treaty for Europe at the end of May.

All year, the “FM 2006” working group pursued the work it has been pursuing since the beginning of 2004. The working group was created by the Conseil to devise the best possible strategy for FM frequency planning and, in close cooperation with the “Radio” working group, to prepare the calls for tenders to be launched during the 2006-2008 period.

The Conseil also appointed France Televisions’ new chairman for a five-year term and designated three persons as members of both the Board of Directors of France Televisions and that of France 2, France 3 and France 5.

The CSA also issued a recommendation to television channels and radio stations reminding them of their obligations regarding the use of the French language.

Finally, as part of the process for the review of the Television without Frontiers directive started in the spring of 2003 in which the CSA has taken an active role, the CSA adopted a response to the public consultation launched by the European Commission in July 2005.

 Digital terrestrial television

Starting on January 17, 2005, pre-roll out operations were carried out to validate the technical conditions for the transmission and reception of digital terrestrial television (DTT) signals.

DTT was officially launched on March 31, 2005 on 17 sites broadcasting to Paris and the Paris region, the greater part of Brittany and, the départements of Bouches-du-Rhône, Charente, Charente-Maritime, Gironde, Seine-Maritime, and Deux-Sèvres amongst others. The cities of Lille, Lyon (Fourvière) and Toulouse (East) were also covered during this first phase when transmitters started operating.

The technical operations for the opening of the 15 second-phase sites started on August 15, 2005, first, with pre-roll out operations and then, in October, with the commercial operation. The fifteen sites broadcast to Ajaccio, Bayonne, Bourges, Caen, Cherbourg, Grenoble, Le Havre, Le Mans, Nantes, Orléans, Reims, Saint-Étienne, Toulon and to additional areas of Lyon and Toulouse.

On July 19, 2005, the Conseil adopted a schedule for the opening of new sites as part of the next two phases to take place in the spring and autumn of 2006. Between March 15 and June 15 of 2006, 19 further sites should open (Phase 3) in the cities of Agen, Alençon, Angers, Arcachon, Argenton-sur-Creuse, Bastia, Besançon, Brive-la-Gaillarde, Caen, Cannes, Clermont-Ferrand, Evreux, Laval, Lorient, Meaux, Nice, Roanne, Saint-Raphaël and Tours. When these transmitters start operating, 58.5 per cent of the population will be covered.

Cover should reach 66 per cent of the population with the opening of 24 new sites during phase 4 covering the cities of Albi, Alès (2 transmitters), Aubenas, Aurillac, Autun, Bergerac, Carcassonne, Chartres, Dieppe, Guéret, Hyères, La Rochelle, Le Puy-en-Velay, Limoges, Mende, Montluçon, Montpellier, Neufchâtel-en-Bray, Perpignan, Poitiers, Privas, Ussel and Valence.

When the four roll out phases are completed, 75 sites will be in operation out of the 115 initially planned to achieve coverage of 85 per cent of the population.

When DTT was launched, 13 free channels were offered (TF1, France 2, France 3, France 5, M6, Arte, Direct 8, W9, TMC, NT1, NRJ 12, La Chaîne parlementaire and France 4), plus the free to air slots of Canal+, i.e., a total of 14 television services. The offer increased during the last quarter of 2005 with four new free channels : BFM TV, Gulli, Europe 2 TV and I-Télé.

These channels were licensed by the CSA in July 2005 upon completion of a second call for tenders launched on 14 December 2004 following the cancellation by the Conseil d’État of 6 licenses issued in 2003 upon completion of the first call for tenders for DTT. As part of the new call for tenders, the CSA also granted licenses to 4 pay channels (Canal J, Canal+ Cinéma, Canal+ Sport, Planète) which together with AB 1, Canal+ (encrypted programs), Eurosport France, LCI, Paris Première, TF 6 and TPS Star make up the offer of pay-DTT.

Over the course of the year, the Conseil reviewed several requests for amendments to the legal agreements binding those licensed DTT services with varying degrees of importance. In some instances, amendments were adopted.

The pay DTT channels did not start broadcasting at the same time as the free channels. The Conseil had set the start date on September 1, 2005 and given the editors a six-month period to start the commercial operation of their services. In the meantime, on October 18, 2005, the Conseil allocated a channel number to the pay channels in the same manner it had for the free channels.

On December 6, 2005, the Conseil adopted a recommendation for the attention of the distributors of DTT requesting them not to change the logical sequence of numbers allocated to the free DTT channels. In the recommendation, the CSA also stressed that, where distributors have the capabilities to implement an alternative numbering of the channels, they may only do so with the express consent of the interested subscriber.

The Conseil received a request by Association de téléchargement hertzien (ATH) (association for hertzian downloading) for the allocation of radio-electrical facilities on the DTT networks to download software updates for the equipment used to receive the television services. On November 2005, the Conseil allocated 20Kbits/s of digital band to each of the five networks used for this purpose.

Four distributors – Canal+ Distribution, CanalSatellite, TV Numeric, AB and TPS – registered with the CSA during the last months of 2005 and the first months of 2006 prior to the marketing to the public of the pay DTT channels with which they have an agreement, as provided for in the Law of 30 September 1986, as amended. These registrations triggered the start of a two-month period during which the agreements relating to the interoperability of the set-top-boxes and the financial and technical conditions to enable reception of pay services on the distributors set-top boxes must be entered into. As the last registration was received by the Conseil on January 13, 2006, in the event no agreement as provided for in the law is entered into by March 13, 2006, the Conseil would have to set forth the technical and commercial conditions for such agreements.

As a result of the government’s decision to select the MPEG-2 standard for the broadcasting of the free channels and the MPEG-4 standard for the pay channels, the Conseil decided, for the sake of consistency and optimal use of the facility, that those services licensed as part of the second call for tenders would be grouped according to whether they are free or pay services.

The free channels were, thus, grouped on multiplex R2 which already included TMC and Direct 8, and the pay channels were grouped on multiplex R3 which already included Canal+. Out of the five DTT multiplexes, two (R1 and R2) are completely used for free DTT and a third (R3) is used exclusively for pay DTT channels.

Even though multiplexes are thus more homogeneously organized, this will not suffice to fully benefit from the gains brought about by the MPEG-4 standard. Therefore, on July 19, 2005, the Conseil specified the rules for the use of the radio-electrical waves and set forth four main categories : MPEG-2 SD (standard definition for free services) ; MPEG-4 SD (standard definition for pay services) ; MPEG-4 SD with open slots in MPEG-2 ; MPEG-4 HD (high definition for pay and free services).

Nonetheless, the Conseil decided to continue working on an evaluation grid for the average band associated with each of the four categories while also taking into account, first, the specific needs associated with the type of programs broadcast by the service, in particular as regards sports channels, second, whether or not there is associated data and, finally, the specific constraints associated with those regional services that cut away (décrochages) from national programs.

In setting forth the rules for the use of radio-electrical waves, the Conseil also indicated that the first facilities to be made available by the use of the MPEG-4 standard shall be used on the five existing multiplexes as follows : first, at least one channel shall be used for the broadcasting of a local service on each site and, second, towards the migration to high definition of those pay services licensed in standard definition.

However, it would be impossible to consider pursuing these objectives without changing the composition of the multiplexes and grouping the free channels on one side and the pay channels on the other one. Therefore, the Conseil reviewed the possibility of changing the break down of the free channels to free one channel on each site for the broadcasting of local programs. That available channel could in particular be used by a private local service to enforce its right to broadcasting in digital where it has been granted a license to broadcast on hertzian terrestrial waves in analog mode. It could also be used to improve the regionalization of France 3’s broadcasting in particular in the areas where there are several local cut-aways (décrochages) in a analog.

The undeniable success of DTT led the Conseil to consider ways of speeding up the roll out so that the 85 per cent of the population coverage target may be reached in March of 2007. The coverage should also be extended so as to ensure access to the free DTT channels to everyone in France. In response to a proposal by the Chairman of the CSA and in order to achieve this, the Prime Minister decided in April 2005 to create a joint working group between the CSA and the Direction du développement des médias (DDM). In a report delivered to the Prime Minister and made public in November 2005, the working group reviewed the obstacles to achieving the 85 per cent of the population coverage target and lists available options to overcome them. It also deals with the extension of DTT beyond 85 per cent of the population.

Finally, being aware of the expectations raised by the new applications of digital TV both on the part of the operators and on the part of the public, the Conseil authorized on September 13, 2005, four experiments to test the technologies themselves and uses associated with the broadcasting of audiovisual communication services to mobile equipment.

 Local hertzian television channels

Four new local analog hertzian channels respectively received a license to broadcast in Nîmes (Télé Miroir), Le Mans (Canal 8 Le Mans), Grenoble (TéléGrenoble) and Marseilles (La Chaîne Marseille LCM) ; the licenses of a further three were renewed without calls for tenders in Clermont 1^ère, TV 8 Mont Blanc and TV 7 Bordeaux.

In addition, on September 6, 2005, the Conseil expressed its position that the license of channel Canal 32 (in Troyes) which is due to expire on 1 October 2006 should be renewed without a call for tenders.

The license of Télé Toulouse was renewed following a call for tenders, and calls for tenders were launched for the creation of local channels in the départements of Haute-Corse and Vendée and in Rennes and vicinity.

Since the license of Télé Lyon Métropole which has already been renewed twice is due to expire on 31 August 2006, the Conseil decided on September 13, 2005 to launch a call for tenders. The applications tendered by Télé Lyon Métropole (TLM) and Antennes locales Lyon were deemed receivable by the Conseil pursuant to a decision issued on December 13, 2005.

On January 18, 2005, two channels which had been pre-selected as part of a call for tenders launched on January 27, 2004 respectively for the cities of Tours and Orléans, entered into a legal agreement with the CSA. The channels are Touraine Télévision (December 7) and Orléans TV (November 3).

Finally, on October 11, 2005, the Conseil launched a public consultation with respect to the digital broadcasting of the local channels of Île-de-France. The consultation which had been organized with a view to possible calls for tenders ended in January 2006. The Conseil received 35 contributions, mainly from editors of services, press publishers, industry organizations, broadcasters, telecommunications operators and local authorities.

 By-election to the Assemblée of French Polynesia and referendum on the draft European constitutional treaty

Following the cancellation on May 23, 2004 of the elections to the Assemblée of French Polynesia in the Îles du Vent (Windward Islands) district, a by-election was organized on February 13, 2005. Having consulted the government of French Polynesia, the CSA adopted on December 23, 2004, a recommendation to state-owned Réseau France outre-mer (RFO) and the other audiovisual communication services licensed in French Polynesia. A second recommendation was also issued on January 3, 2005.

In the first recommendation, the CSA called on the interested operators to ensure that, lists of candidates, where the topic was the Îles du Vent (Windward Islands) district, and to political players, when the topic was broader, received fair and equal representation on, and access to, the airwaves.

The CSA also organized the official party political campaign broadcasts for the elections radio and television which were produced by RFO. The various authorized lists expressed their views on the channels of RFO Polynésie between January 31 and February 4 and between February 6 and February 11 under the scrutiny of representatives of the Conseil who had traveled to French Polynesia.

For the referendum of May 29, 2005 on the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe, as early as March 22, the Conseil issued a recommendation to all radio and television services effective as from April 4. A second recommendation followed underlining certain provisions relating to the end of the campaign.

The recommendation of March 22 set forth two principles regarding access to airwaves during the period from April 4 to May 29, 2005 :
• television and radio services had to ensure that parties or political groups were granted equal representation on, and access to, airwaves ;
• the same had to ensure plurality of opinions when airtime was devoted to persons not members of a party or a political group.

As in previous recommendations for referenda, views expressed by the President of the Republic were not to be taken into account for the computation of airtime, regardless of whether the views expressed were dealt with the referendum or not,.

In addition to monitoring the editorial treatment of the campaign, the CSA organized the official party political campaign broadcasts on public radio stations and television channels. They were aired between May 16 and May 21 and May 23 and May 27. The CSA applied the same provisions for the production and broadcasting of the broadcasts that it had successfully applied for the first time in 2004 on the occasion the European elections.

 Optimization of frequency planning and adoption of the schedule for future call for tenders for FM radio

The licenses of many radio stations relating to approximately 1,600 frequencies, i.e., 57 per cent of the total FM frequencies allocated to private radio stations are due to expire between 2006 and 2008. Over the next two years, the CSA will launch calls for tenders in the geographical jurisdiction of 11 Comités Techniques Radiophoniques (radio technical committees) of metropolitan France.

In 2005, the Conseil started preparing so-called “general” calls for tenders. Launching them will only be possible once frequency planning has been optimized, therefore, the CSA continued throughout the year and in close cooperation with the “Radio” working group, the work initiated as early as the beginning of 2004 by “FM 2006”, a working group specially created for that purpose. Models for multiple scenarios were created and numerous exchanges of views with the operators took place on the basis of the findings of the public consultation on frequency planning launched in October 2004.

At its plenary meeting of December 13, 2005, the Conseil adopted the schedule for the review of the calls for tenders. As permitted under the law, the Conseil also decided to postpone by two years five calls for tenders (in the geographical jurisdiction of the Comités Techniques Radiophoniques (radio technical committees) of Dijon, Marseille, Nancy, Poitiers and Caen) so as to achieve a better use of the frequencies allocated to radio services.

The schedule includes the launch by the CSA of 13 calls for tenders over the next 29 months to come and is as follows :
• in 2006, six calls for tenders will be launched in the jurisdiction of the Comités Techniques Radiophoniques (radio technical committees) of Marseille (Corsica region), Toulouse (Languedoc-Roussillon region), Rennes, Bordeaux, Paris and Clermont-Ferrand ;
• in 2007, seven calls for tenders will be launched in the jurisdiction of the Comités Techniques Radiophoniques (radio technical committees) of Dijon, Marseille (Provence - Alpes - Côte d’azur region), Nancy (Champagne-Ardenne region), Toulouse (Midi-Pyrénées region), Poitiers, Lille and Caen.

 Appointment of France Télévisions’ Chairman

On July 6, 2005, pursuant to paragraph 3 of section 47-1 of the Law of 30 September 1986 as amended relating to personnalités qualifiées (qualified persons), Mr. Patrick de Carolis was appointed as director of France Télévisions to serve as Chairman for a period of five years starting as from 22 August 2005, it being the date on which Mr. Marc Tessier’s term of office came to an end.

In addition, on September 1, the CSA appointed three qualified persons to the Board of Directors of France Télévisions, each one of them also to serve on the Board of Directors of either, France 2 or, France 3 or, France 5. On the same date, the terms of office of Mr. Dominique Wolton and Mr. Constantin Costa-Gavras were renewed, to France 2 for the former and to France 3 for the latter. Mr. Jean-Christophe Rufin was appointed to France 5.

 Recommendation relating to the use of the French language

Under section 3-1 of the Law of 30 September 2006 as amended, the CSA is in charge of ensuring that the French language and French culture are protected and illustrated by the audiovisual media. Therefore, in January 2005, it issued a recommendation reminding television channels and radio stations of their obligations in respect thereto under applicable laws and regulations and under the agreement into which they have entered with the CSA. In the face of over-abundant usage on the air of English or anglicized terms, the Conseil thought it fit to issue this reminder so as to preserve both the understandability of audiovisual communication and French cultural identity, while not hampering freedom of communication.

 Review of the Television without Frontiers directive

During the first semester of 2005, the CSA continued participating in the preparation for the review of the Television without Frontiers directive. The Conseil thus closely followed the work carried out for the independent studies commissioned by the European Commission, in particular in the areas of advertising and co-regulation. It also participated in the seminar organized in May during the Luxemburg presidency of the European Union and to consultation meetings with the French industry.

In addition, by means of its specialized working groups, the CSA carried out an in-depth review of each issue at stake so as to analyze the positions to be adopted for the Commission’s next consultation. On September 1, 2005, the Conseil adopted its response to the public consultation launched by the European Commission on July 12 in relation to the review of the directive. In particular, the Conseil took position in favor of the extension of the scope of the directive, expressed its position regarding the criteria to determine jurisdiction over extra-European channels and regarding audiovisual commercial communications.

Following the audiovisual conference organized in Liverpool from September 20 to September 22, 2005 by the UK presidency of the European Union and entitled “Between Culture and Commerce”, the European Commission adopted its proposal for the revision of the Television without Frontiers directive on December 13. The proposal will be reviewed by the European Council and the European parliament. The CSA will continue to contribute to the debates in the future.