Resumen de France: : Playmédia carrying France Télévisions channels - further intervention by the CSA
There has been a further development in the dispute between Playmédia, the editor of the Play TV site, and France Télévisions. The Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (audiovisual regulatory authority - CSA) was alerted by Play TV, which broadcasts nearly seventy television channels live and by streaming, of the repeated refusal by the public-sector audiovisual group to contract with it to carry the channels France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5 and France Ô. Playmédia claimed the benefit of the provisions of Article 34-2 of the Act of 30 September 1986, which introduced a must-carry obligation requiring distributors of audiovisual services to make the France Télévisions services “available free of charge to their subscribers”. In a decision issued on 23 July 2013 (see IRIS 2013-8/15), the CSA considered that Playmédia did indeed have the status of a distributor of services, but that it had to have subscribers in order to be subject to the must-carry obligation, which was not the case at the time since the service was available unencrypted and free of charge.
