05/12/2003

After a series of consultations and negotiations with the various professional bodies representing the French audiovisual production industry, the National Film Centre (CNC) has made some modifications to COSIP (the support fund for audiovisual programmes) to be introduced at the start of 2004. These changes were somewhat inevitable due to the increasing financial imbalance of the system, which has seen a huge increase in TV programmes over the past few years (4658 hours in 2002), and, on the other hand, the support funds that aren’t increasing at the same rate (€212.5 million for production in 2002).

So, what is the aim of COSIP? To support the production of audiovisual works destined for TV programming, thanks to a tax on subscribers, takings from advertising on private and public TV channels and a charge on the TV licence, as well as a tax on videos. This system puts back part of the TV profits into production (of dramas, documentaries, animation, shows) and it now has to tackle the new boom in documentaries. The CNC intends to scrap the automatic support for documentaries that last less than 24 minutes, and has introduced a system whereby all documentaries that have little investment from television (less than €6,000) are considered through a selective support filter mechanism.
In addition, there are many measures to encourage filming in France, especially in the animation sector. Some of the issues are still being discussed, especially concerning drama production and artists’ salaries.
Once the reform of the COSIP is complete, it will be handed over to minister Aillagon to form into a bill, which should be published February 2004.

(Translated from French)