France Télévisions

France Télévisions is France’s national public television group, organised as a wholly state-owned société anonyme. Its services encompass national, regional and overseas television, overseas radio and digital platforms. Delphine Ernotte Cunci has led the group since 2015 and also serves as President of the European Broadcasting Union.

Media assets

National television: France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5 and franceinfo

Regional and overseas television: France 3’s regional services, France 3 Corse ViaStella and the nine television stations of the La 1ère network

Radio: the nine overseas radio stations of La 1ère

Digital: france.tv, franceinfo.fr, the La 1ère websites and application, Slash, Okoo and Lumni

France 4 combines children’s programming with cultural programming. Slash serves young adults through digital and social platforms, Okoo provides children’s content, and Lumni offers educational resources. The franceinfo service is developed with Radio France, France Médias Monde and INA.

The group reported monthly reach of 45.3 million people for france.tv in August 2026, an increase of 13 per cent on August 2025.

Its commercial and production subsidiaries include France Télévisions Publicité, France Télévisions Distribution, France.tv Studio, France 2 Cinéma and France 3 Cinéma.

Ownership and governance

The French state directly owns the entire share capital of France Télévisions. Article 47 of Law No. 86-1067 of 30 September 1986 establishes its ownership and corporate framework and provides for its statutes to be approved by decree.

The board has 15 members, including its president. The other fourteen comprise one National Assembly member and one senator, selected by their respective cultural affairs committees; five state representatives; five independent members appointed by Arcom; and two elected staff representatives. Board terms are five years. Five specialised committees cover audit and accounts, strategy, remuneration, commitments and corporate social responsibility.

Arcom appoints the president for a five-year term. On 14 May 2025 the regulator renewed Delphine Ernotte Cunci’s appointment for a third term, extending her leadership to 2030. Separately, in June 2026 she was re-elected President of the European Broadcasting Union for a further two-year term beginning on 1 January 2027.

The proposed France Médias holding has not become law. The National Assembly rejected the reform bill on 30 June 2025. The Senate adopted a revised version on 11 July 2025 and returned it to the Assembly for a second reading; the legislative record does not show subsequent enactment.

The Senate’s latest text would place France Télévisions, Radio France and INA under the holding. France Médias Monde would remain outside it, and Arcom would appoint the holding’s president. These remain proposed arrangements.

Source of funding and budget

France Télévisions receives most of its funding from an allocation of VAT receipts, supplemented by advertising, sponsorship and commercial activities. This arrangement replaced the television licence fee following its abolition in 2022.

The funding mechanism is permanent, but its annual amount remains a political budget decision. Organic Law No. 2024-1177 of 13 December 2024 enabled continued earmarking of tax revenue for public broadcasting. It did not establish an immutable funding amount: Parliament continues to determine allocations through annual finance legislation.

The 2025 accounts record a loss. The group’s consolidated financial report shows net turnover of EUR 3.063 billion, against EUR 3.296 billion in 2024. Public resources amounted to EUR 2.506 billion. Advertising and sponsorship revenue fell to EUR 394.8 million from EUR 503.7 million, following the exceptional sporting year of 2024 and a weaker advertising market.

The consolidated operating loss was EUR 33.4 million, against EUR 8.7 million in 2024. The net result attributable to the group was a loss of EUR 30.7 million, against a profit of EUR 2.4 million in 2024. The report also records a EUR 50 million interest-bearing state advance granted in May 2025 and repayable in April 2027.

The 2026 Finance Act appropriated EUR 2.426 billion. In March 2026 the company reported an approximately EUR 80 million reduction in public funding compared with 2025, including a further EUR 15 million reduction after its initial budget had been adopted. The board maintained its objective of returning to operating break-even during 2026.

The initial budget approved in December 2025 required a EUR 140 million adjustment, combining expenditure reductions with higher commercial revenue. Measures included lower programme costs, reduced commitments to audiovisual production, staff reductions and property disposals, while preserving essential technological investment.

Further pressure was emerging for 2027. In an interview published on 18 September 2026, Ernotte said the funding discussions envisaged another EUR 47 million reduction in the state allocation. She estimated an overall EUR 90 million adjustment once weaker advertising and the absence of repeat property gains were included. These were management’s projections during continuing funding negotiations.

Editorial independence

French law explicitly requires independent public-service news. Article 43-11 of the 1986 broadcasting law requires public broadcasters to ensure honesty, independence and pluralism in information. Article 35 of France Télévisions’ public-service specifications reinforces these requirements and requires fair treatment of controversial subjects and competing viewpoints.

The broadcaster’s internal safeguards include its Ethics Charter and Charte des antennes, established in 2011. Its published editorial principles require accuracy, impartiality, verification before publication and correction of errors. A joint management and union ethics-monitoring commission, together with journalists’ societies, provides additional channels for raising editorial concerns.

A statutory Committee on Honesty, Independence and Pluralism of Information and Programmes, commonly called the ethics committee, consists of independent members appointed by the board. State representatives do not participate in their appointment vote. The committee publishes opinions and annual reports and must notify Arcom of potential breaches; it has no sanctioning power. Its 2025 report records sixteen referrals and eleven responses.

Governance, finances and impartiality remained subjects of parliamentary scrutiny during 2026. A National Assembly inquiry published its report in May, and France Télévisions issued a detailed response disputing several findings and recommendations.

AI and digital policy

France Télévisions has published principles governing newsroom AI use. In February 2025 the information executive Pascal Doucet-Bon described a process retaining human control over the decision to use AI, over verification and over publication. AI output must not be treated as an authoritative source, and systems must not publish directly without journalistic oversight.

The principles also protect confidentiality: journalists must not disclose confidential information, including details of unpublished reporting, to external tools such as ChatGPT or Le Chat. Audiences should receive clear disclosure when generative AI creates or materially contributes to content, including on-screen and spoken explanations where appropriate. Photorealistic synthetic imagery requires particular caution and collective editorial consideration.

Documented applications include interview transcription, locating corresponding video segments, analysing large document collections and detecting synthetic material. France Télévisions has also described an internal environment designed to keep sensitive data within the organisation. Its 2025 non-financial report confirms that journalists have access to internal guidance on generative AI and that AI training forms part of staff development.

France Télévisions contributed, alongside Radio France, France Médias Monde and TV5 Monde, to INA’s mapping of AI tools and issues across the journalistic production process, published in February 2025. Its president supported the EBU and WAN-IFRA News Integrity in the Age of AI initiative launched in May 2025, which calls for authorised use of news content, fair recognition of its value, accurate attribution and cooperation with technology companies.

Since 2 August 2026, Article 50 of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act has applied disclosure obligations to deepfakes and to AI-generated or manipulated text published to inform the public on matters of public interest. The text obligation includes an exception where human review or editorial control occurs and a natural or legal person holds editorial responsibility; that exception does not generally exempt deepfakes, and evidently artistic, creative, satirical and fictional works have an adapted disclosure requirement.

Classification rationale

France Télévisions remains classified Independent State-Funded and State-Managed/Owned (ISFM).

It is wholly state-owned, with governance established by law. Its fifteen-member board combines the president, state representatives, parliamentarians, Arcom-appointed independent members and elected staff representatives. Arcom appoints the president.

It is predominantly state-funded. Allocations drawn from VAT receipts provide most of its resources, with Parliament determining the annual amount. Public resources totalled approximately EUR 2.506 billion in 2025, alongside advertising, sponsorship and other commercial income.

Its editorial independence is supported by statutory obligations, regulatory oversight and internal safeguards. These include legal requirements for independent and pluralistic information, published editorial standards and an ethics committee that reports potential breaches to Arcom. Financial vulnerability and political pressure remain material risks to that independence.

September 2026