French industry body calls for license fee hike

French multimedia authors society the SCAM has called for an increase in the licence fee to finance France Télévisions and end uncertainty over the public broadcaster’s future.

The SCAM has called for an increase of €5 per household for 2013 and above inflation increases of €3 per year for each of the four years thereafter.

SCAM president Jean Xavier de Lestrade said that an increase in the licence fee was the only viable solution and that the government had to tackle the taboo surrounding the notion of an increase in the fee.

The SCAM, which publicised a series of proposals following the Auteurdevue 2012 event for audiovisual professionals, has also condemned a cut in the budget of the Centre National du Cinéma (CNC), which supports audiovisual production in France, of €150 million, as excessive.

The SCAM said it believed the state was penalising an organization that contributed significantly to growth and employment and called for a ring-fencing of the organisation’s budget.

The SCAM also joined with producers’ organisations to call for a reform of the COSIP, the fund for the support of French cinema production, to ensure continued support for high-end productions.

Finally, to combat piracy, the SCAM has also called for a reduction in exclusivity windows for documentary films from the current four years and a revision of rules applying to the theatrical distribution windows for documentaries.