Panel offers offset to blurb cuts
French commission sets up proposals
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The first solution suggested by the commission, chaired by budget minister Jean-Francois Cope, involves upping TV licensing fees and indexing them to the rate of inflation. The current annual fee of $182 has not increased since 2002.
Cope said the commission also favored taxing various types of consumer electronics or levying a 0.5% tax on the revenue of French telco operators and Internet service providers.
He emphasized that the solution may be a mix of all three.
The commission, made up of members of parliament and broadcasting professionals, is due to give its final report to the government on June 25.
The ban on ads was announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy in January. Blurbs will be nixed after 8 p.m. beginning in September, and all ads will go by Jan. 1, 2012.
The ban is seen as a boost for Gaul's commercial broadcasters.
Earlier on Wednesday, webs TF1, M6 and paybox Canal Plus jointly announced that they have set up the Assn. of Private Channels to "defend the rights and professional interests of all private terrestrial channels providing national coverage."
