Question 35308 — audiovisual and communication

Summary

Ms. Frédérique Dumas draws the attention of the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recovery to what could constitute serious dysfunctions in the application of the governance and management rules of the public group France Télévisions. At the origin of these dysfunctions is a service contract which was signed by the president of France Télévisions, with the company Air Production and a producer host, for the ordering of several programs over the 2017-2020 period. This contract was renewed in June 2020, the programs it concerns are still broadcast on the channels of the France Télévisions group.   This multi-year order was concluded for an amount of nearly 100 million euros (33 million euros per year) without the commitment procedure normally applicable for this category of contracts being strictly respected. CONTRACT. Indeed, according to the company's statutes, "the board of directors adopts internal regulations intended to specify its mode of operation as well as that of the specialized committees that it establishes in compliance with the applicable legislative and regulatory provisions. The internal regulations determine in particular the commitments whose nature or amount justifies their being submitted to the council. of administration”. As such, “the commitments subcommittee is responsible for issuing an advisory opinion on program acquisitions, before signing contracts, as long as their amount exceeds certain thresholds set according to the nature of the programs, 15 million euros for sport, 10 million euros for stock and flow programs”. According to the information collected, it seems that the president did not respected this procedure, either by simply not requesting this committee, or by only presenting a tiny part of this contract and not its entirety, which would amount to a pure and simple deviation from the rules. Representatives in particular of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, the budget department and the State Participation Agency did not notice this significant breach of public management rules or did not were informed by the manager of the company, nor the general economic and financial controller who should have alerted his superiors to this failure and not authorized the implementation of this contract, although it had been executed in recent years. Furthermore, in view of the elements which were brought to her attention, it appears from a clause in the contract that the president of France Télévisions would have expressly undertaken to consult its board of directors for its opinion, taking into account the amounts involved. This commitment would not have been followed up on. In addition to the very probable non-compliance with the procedures provided for by the company's statutes, it also seems that the contract in question would include provisions that do not comply with internal rules and would be contrary to the interests of the company. It would even deviate from the clauses it contains in its execution. So certain early evening shows would be ordered for very large amounts without a real concept, without justification of the production budgets allocated to their production and finally with minimum audience clauses. However, these “audience clauses” are imposed on all producers. These clauses provide in particular for a cessation of broadcasts if they are not reached. These practices constitute de facto leasing of antenna for the benefit of a single producer. However, the latter were banned in 1996 following abuses. Also included in this contract is the commitment to acquire fiction series and documentaries from the parent company of Air Production, the Banijay company, again without respecting the principle of calls for tenders which, at a minimum, should prevail while there is a national network of independent production to which France Télévisions is also imposing drastic budget reductions in the name of the savings requested from the public service by the shareholder, the State. Finally, to date, the annual accounts of the Air Production company are not available. Besides the fact of contracting with companies which do not meet these publication measures reveals a notorious lack of transparency incompatible with the governance of the public service, the Knowledge of this financial information would be useful in determining the amount of margins generated by such commercial relations with France Télévisions. Moreover, according to the admission of its directors in the press, the public group did not take care to carry out an audit of the accounts of the Air Production company during the execution of its contract. All of this information is so serious that a question has been raised asked the Minister in a public session at the National Assembly during the examination of the credits for the “Media, Books and Cultural Industries” mission and the financial assistance account “Advances to public broadcasting” on November 6, 2020. The Minister then replied: “I do not have the elements that would allow me to respond to you immediately. I undertake before the national representation to give you all the elements necessary”. This question was followed by a detailed letter. Like the entire profession which is going through a particularly difficult period linked to the health crisis, the MP remains awaiting a response as quickly as possible on certain elements of her question which remain purely factual and on what the Government intends to do to give itself the means to answer these questions more than legitimate. Viewers pay their fees, they too have the right to expect exemplary conduct from the public audiovisual companies which they finance. The State must be their guarantor in terms of control and transparency of the companies it has under its supervision. However, this was not the case and opacity continues to reign over the award of this contract to the Air Production companies as well as to its parent company Banijay, whose turnover volume with the France Télévisions group is growing strongly as noted by the CSA in its latest annual report. Remember that this production company has just welcomed the former general director responsible for the broadcasts of France Télévisions, barely two months after he left the public group, raising the question of possible interference of interests. These facts are of a extreme gravity. If they were definitively proven, they amount to poor management and break the principle of fairness which must govern relations between a public audiovisual group and independent production companies. She therefore asks him to initiate an investigation which could be carried out by the General Inspectorate of Finance as has been the case recently in other companies in the public audiovisual sector.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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