French telcos call for smart TVs to support content system

Source: Alamy.com

French telecom operators are calling for smart TV manufacturers and providers of connected TV devices to be subject to the same obligations to support content creation as the telcos themselves.

The Fédération Françiase des Télécoms (FFT) has begun lobbying for smart TV and device manufacturers to share the burden by paying the version of the Taxe sur Les Services de Télévision administered by government body the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) imposed on distributors (TST-D in the French abbreviation).

In February the FFT commissioned a report from strategic advisory outfit Kearney on the evolution of the French audiovisual ecosystem in part to identify inequalities in the way French content creation is funded.

Kearney’s findings highlighted inequalities in the treatment of French distributors – the telecom operators who deliver TV services to the majority of homes – and “new foreign players”, meaning smart TV manufacturers and providers of HDMI streaming devices that pre-install TV apps.

Kearney said that, faced with the emergence of new aggregators such as smart TV providers, which benefit from regulatory and tax asymmetry, the unique French audiovisual ecosystem was at a point  of change.

Negative impact

Admitting that the relationship between distributors and TV service providers has not always run smooth in France, Kearney said that this relationship would be impacted significantly by the entry of new, foreign actors with a completely different approach that were not subject to the same rules.

Kearney said that the realignment of distribution could have a direct negative impact on the financing of French content creation of €150 million, but that broadcasters would also be faced with additional costs to ensure prominence on smart TVs and other devices.

The drive by telcos to lobby for regulatory change comes after the country’s media regulator ARCOM in February called for the creation of a common smart TV and set-top app for French broadcasters to ensure their continued prominence on the model of the UK’s Freely.