Take a look « scientific and rational » on the digital transformation of the media, with the ambition of « respect the interests » of each of the actors. Here, in a few words, is how François le Hodey and Bernard Marchant, managing directors of the two main Belgian French-speaking press groups (IPM and Rossel), position the study presented on Monday, on behalf of Lapresse.be (an association which brings together publishers of Belgian French-speaking and German-speaking daily press). A study which comes as the process of renegotiating the RTBF management contract with its supervisory authority, the government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, has started.
Entitled « Digital convergence and evolution of the business model of the written press in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation », this study was carried out by three professors of economics: Paul Belleflamme (UCLouvain), Axel Gautier (ULiège) and Xavier Wauthy (University Saint Louis). The main question submitted to the university trio was the following: while the supply of information has largely shifted to the Internet and the daily press has developed a « freemium » model (1), the free supply of content written by RTBF, an audiovisual operator funded overwhelmingly by taxpayers (more than 285 million euros per year), is it legitimate?
The risk ? An eviction of the private offer
After having explained the repercussions of the « digital revolution » on the ecosystem and the business model of the daily press and having underlined the specificities of the Belgian French-speaking market, the three professors arrive at an answer which, the least we can write, is unequivocal: « The written content is not part of the missions of the RTBF management contract, it has no economic logic and it does not participate in the general interest ».
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For Messrs. Belleflamme, Gautier and Wauthy, the free offer of written content, as it appears today on the RTBF site. be (« site which is more and more similar to a written press site »they note), is financed « in part » by the subsidies granted to RTBF to fulfill its public service missions. « This subsidized and free offer is not compatible with competition on the basis of merits, with a risk of eviction of the private offer which could be harmful both for the quality and for the diversity of information »support the three media economists, who talk about « unfair competition » to the daily press.
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To ensure equal treatment between the public operator and the market operators (Rossel, IPM, etc.) in their supply of written content online, the authors of the study propose the following alternative: either the future management of RTBF includes the online written offer in the public service missions and, in this case, all market operators must benefit from the subsidies. Either this management contract does not include the online written offer in the public service missions and, in this case, the public operator must adopt a market approach for its offer of online written content (by introducing the model « freemium »). « In the end, it’s up to the FWB (Wallonia-Brussels Federation) to decide »they conclude.
RTBF does not respect its commitments
In 2019, during the previous renegotiation of the RTBF management contract, Lapresse.be had already made the FWB government aware of this. It was then decided to impose certain restrictive conditions on the offer of free written content on the RTBF site. However, notes François le Hodey, the Superior council of audio-visual (CSA) itself established, in its last annual opinion relating to the RTBF, that the public operator had not respected these conditions. And this, add the two representatives of the publishers, with the consent of its board of directors and the government commissioners.
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« The next five years are going to be the most critical period of the digital revolution in the daily news press, hammer, by way of conclusion, François le Hodey and Bernard Marchant. It will be essential to successfully convert to the digital subscription model over this period. But how to succeed if the public operator is subsidized to offer free written information? We hope that the political world will understand the scope of this major issue. ».
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What RTBF for the next five years?
By adopting, on March 21, a note of intent aimed at « strengthen RTBF as an independent, accessible, modern, creative and reliable public service media« , the government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation had kicked off the renegotiation of the RTBF management contract (2023-2027). The PS-MR-Ecolo majority has already committed to maintaining the current allocations and their amounts (indexation included). The Parliament of the FWB, called upon to make its own recommendations, began hearings. The general administrator of the RTBF, Jean-Paul Philippot, was also heard. On Tuesday, the president of the Superior council of audio-visual will be it in its turn. The editors are unaware of as for them when they will be it. After these hearings, the Minister for the Media, Bénédicte Linard (Ecolo), will negotiate the new contract with Jean-Paul Philippot.
(1) “Freemium” consists, on the one hand, in providing free online access to some of the information content (mainly news agency dispatches) and, on the other hand, in charging the content produced by journalists.
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