Royalty TV is living its last moments. The government has just confirmed that the famous tax will be abolished from 2022, via the amending finance bill which will be presented after the June legislative elections.
The disappearance of the TV license fee is a fad that has been coming back for several years now. Already in 2018, the first Macron government mentioned the abolition of this tax, which makes it possible to contribute to the financing of French audiovisual. Finally, the TV license was maintained.
However, French politicians have considered many scenarios concerning it. The government wanted to calculate this tax on the size of families, while MPs wanted to make it proportional to household income. In September 2020, the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot explained that she was considering applying the TV license fee to smartphones and computers.
The TV fee will disappear well in 2022
Eventually, none of this will happen. Indeed, Emmanuel Macron has made the abolition of the TV license fee one of his main campaign promises. Now at the head of the state for a new five-year term, the end of the TV license fee can take place. As revealed in the report of the Council of Ministers of this Wednesday, May 11, the government wishes to ratify the abolition of this tax as of 2022.
“The contribution to public broadcasting will be permanently abolished this year and the financing of public broadcasting will be ensured in compliance with the constitutional objective of pluralism and independence of the media”. affirmed the government in a transcription of a communication from Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire during the Council of Ministers.
As the Bercy tenant pointed out, the objective is to end the TV license fee from 2022 via the amending finance bill which will be presented and voted on after the legislative elections in June 2022. As a reminder, the TV license fee brought in no less than 3 billion euros each year, which was used in particular to finance TV channels and public radio stations. For the hundreds of thousands of professionals in the sector, there is concern. In effect, we do not yet know what the new mechanism planned to finance public broadcasting will be.
Source : Le Figaro
