Digital platforms: French CSA Study - now available in English

On September 23^rd, 2016, the French Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) published a study on digital platforms and the challenges that they raise both in terms of competition and regulation.

The digital intermediaries covered by the study are the platforms acting as intermediaries between audiovisual content, Internet users and other user groups such as advertisers, i.e. social networks, video sharing platforms, app stores and search engines.
 

The first part of the study looks at the role played by platforms with regard to access to audiovisual content and how audiovisual service providers are adapting to the digital environment. This section presents an overview of the interactions between the various actors in the value chain of audiovisual content dissemination.
 

The second part of the study presents an analysis of the business models of digital platforms and highlights their main characteristics.
 

The report concludes that the development of digital platforms has a far-reaching impact on the economic, competition and societal aspects of the audiovisual sector. With regard to regulatory aspects, the document highlights ten issues of concern: 

• Ensuring non-discriminatory access to audiovisual services

• Content referencing

• The prescriptive power of platforms

• Trend towards uniformisation of content

• Content moderation

• Compliance with copyright and intellectual property

• Advertising innovation

• Control and valorisation of data

• The repartition of value between platforms and traditional audiovisual actors

• Financing of content and how to adapt the system of financing creation.

This publication is based on the analysis of recent economic and legal research concerning platforms, quantitative data and qualitative data gathered  during  interviews with various stakeholders of the audiovisual sector and experts in law and economy.

The study has recently been translated to English.

• "Platforms and access to audiovisual content - competitive and regulatory issues" (EN)

• "Plateformes et accès aux contenus audiovisuels : quels enjeux concurrentiels et de régulation?" (FR)

Source: CSA Website