European Commission investigates French public TV

The European Commission is examining whether French authorities plans to phase out advertising on public TV and fill the funding gap by taxing private media companies is fair.

The EC nevertheless provisionally authorised the subsidy of €450m granted by the French government to compensate France Télévisions.

Advertising is being removed from France Televisions channels in stages, leaving a larger advertising pie for the remaining commercial broadcasters, which are nonetheless unhappy about being asked to pay more tax to fund their public broadcast competitor. The Commission will investigate whether the public broadcaster is getting more funds than are necessary to fulfil its PSB remit.