French Broadcasters & Guilds Launch Lobby Group To Preserve Local Audiovisual Sector & Principle Of Cultural Exception

deadline.com:

France’s main free-to-air broadcasters France Télévisions, M6 and TF1 have joined forces with the country’s film and TV guilds to create a lobbying group to represent their interests and convey the role they play in supporting democracy, social cohesion and local culture.

Bannered “LaFA, la filière audiovisuelle”, which translates as the “LaFA, the audiovisual sector”, the new initiative was unveiled at a news conference at the headquarters of private broadcaster TF1 on Wednesday. “Our organizations and companies want to recall the essential role they play in providing all of our fellow citizens with free and universal access to trustworthy information, to audiovisual creations envied throughout the world, as well as a rich offering of entertainment and major sporting events,” the group said in a statement. “They guarantee the diversity of audiovisual and musical creation and its exhibition through programs highlighting the full diversity of French society and conveying positive messages of inclusion and unifying.

They participate in the creation of a cultural heritage common to all of our fellow citizens across the entire territory and therefore contribute to the strengthening of social cohesion in our country.” The professional orgs getting behind the lobbying group span l’ADAMI (performing artists), la SACD (Dramatic Authors and Composers) , la SACEM (music professionals) et la SCAM (writers) and producer bodies ANIMFRANCE, le SPI and l’USPA.

The group’s 10 co-founding members include TF1 CEO Rodolphe Belmer, who will act as its president for a two-year term. He is flanked by France Télévision Director General Delphine Ernotte Cunci, producer Nora Melhli, who is also president of the audiovisual branch of producer