SACD expresses consternation at CSA opposition to VOD rules

French producers organisation SACD has voiced its “incomprehension” at CSA president Michel Boyon’s opposition to the government’s plan to introduce French and European content quotas and support for production as a condition of holding a licence to operate a video-on-demand service (reported in yesterday’s DTVE Daily).

The SACD said that Boyon’s intervention, which went against normal practice, seemed to go beyond the CSA’s original mission.

Regarding one of the main points raised by Boyon – that French VOD services handicapped by content restrictions would lose out to on-demand services based outside France’s national territory – the SACD said that it was essential Europe-wide rules were defined to prevent this, but maintained that the draft law should not be hostage to European harmonisation, which would likely take much longer.