July 2015

Interview Series Ⅱ: Public Service Broadcasting Update
[Part I] France: Rémy Phlimlin, President of France Télévisions

Under Pressure of Drastic Streamlining amid Economic Slump

Tetsuro Nitta

The Overseas Media Studies group of the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute started the “Interview Series: Public Service Broadcasting Update” featuring interviews with experts and central players of the business on the reality of and the challenges faced by public service broadcasters of the world from July 2010. This series comes back for the first time in five years from July 2015 as the second phase. The first guest of the new series is Rémy Phlimlin, President of France Télévisions—a French public service broadcaster—who will complete his tenure in August 2015. Mr. Phlimlin accomplished the structural integration of organizations separated by channel and contributed to a dramatic development of its digital multimedia services. However, he was constantly under pressure of cost reduction and streamlining as the company had to not only pursue the reform under a sluggish economy, but also face a broadcasting policy shift due to the change of government and suffer from the collapse of financing model including major cuts in government subsidy. In the wake of the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine in January this year, the French independent regulatory body issued a flood of warnings to TV broadcasters and implemented measures which could be taken as collective sanctions. Mr. Phlimlin criticized that the regulatory body went beyond the bounds of its authority, arguing such measures would harm the trust relationship between the public and the media and France Télévisions is self-disciplined in terms of restriction on the freedom of expression based on the corporate charter in accordance with broadcasting ethics.

 

The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research