Alice Enders was quoted in Videoweek on “Nothing in the Pipeline” After France Scraps Licence Fee
6 September 2022Alice said “It’s not good. This was an implementation of a promise made by Macron in the course of this latest election cycle… a promise that was made by all the centre and centre-right candidates.”
Has this prompted much outrage from defenders of the licence fee? “No,” responds Enders. “Frankly not. It’s very hard to fight something because it was all packaged up as a measure to address the cost of living crisis.” Coupled with a socialist opposition “in disarray”, the government was effectively given carte blanche.
She added “The Senate amputated the funding to 2024, and the whole issue of the funding of the PSB becomes entirely the subject of executive action. This has the potential to stymie the kind of long-term decisions and multi-year commissions that can help make a broadcaster truly competitive. It does really hypothecate, to a considerable degree, the expenditure that can be made on programming."