A senatorial mission proposes to merge France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde and INA – Le Monde

The headquarters of France Télévisions, in Paris, in 2017. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP Will the Senate shake up or make life easier for Emmanuel Macron? This is the question that arises after the publication of explosive conclusions rendered at the end of a joint mission on the financing of public broadcasting carried out by two senators from Les Républicains, Roger Karoutchi under the Finance Committee, and Jean-Raymond Hugonet, for the Culture Committee. “We were unpleasantly surprised by the announcement of the abolition of the fee, of which we are not however fans, in the middle of the presidential campaign and without compensation”, explained Roger Karoutchi, Wednesday, June 8. The objective of the two senators is to introduce into the debate avenues for reform and solutions in order to guarantee the financing of public broadcasting while the government should abolish the license fee in July on the occasion of a text on the purchasing power. Read our analysis: Article reserved for our subscribers Why the abolition of the fee threatens the independence of public broadcasting The most symbolic measure, the merger of France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde (which includes RFI and France 24) and the INA. “It is time to put an end to a French exception. The idea is not to reduce, but to group together to pool resources and have a reserve of skills”, justified Jean-Raymond Hugonet, for whom the synergies put in place until then by the various entities are not working well. “It took four years to have joint morning shows between France Bleu and France 3. And Franceinfo still does not have a single editorial staff,” he listed. The senators also propose “the creation of a ‘newsroom’ [rédaction] which would bring together all journalists, international, national and local, in order to eliminate “duplicates”. “The economic and political journalists of France Télévisions and Radio France could work together”, continued Jean-Raymond Hugonet. France 3 and France Bleu would be brought together under a single banner, “France Médias Régions”, an entity with which local authorities could be associated. “Fusion has been in the air for a while. We can clearly see that a holding [tel que proposé dans le précédent quinquennat par l’ancien ministre de la culture Franck Riester] would only add a bureaucratic structure ”, corroborated Roger Karoutchi, who aims as a deadline of 2025, the end of the mandate of the boss of France Télévisions, Delphine Ernotte. The senators are careful not to estimate the number of jobs that would bear the cost of the merger, and quantify the amount of savings made at 10%, a percentage delivered by the chain owners, according to Mr. Karoutchi. You have 42.92% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.