The CSA, France's top regulator for film and television production, says YouTube should subsidize French cinema.
The French Broadcasting Council said video-sharing websites should pay a tax that helps fund French film and television production.
It is the “culture tax,” a tax of more than $1.3 billion a year paid by cinemas, channels and internet service providers in France. The CSA claims that YouTube, French video-sharing site DailyMotion and similar sites provide video-on-demand services that are already subject to the tax.
Although the CSA states in its report that videos uploaded to the internet by individuals should not be subject to taxation, it notes on the other hand that video-sharing websites have gradually evolved into "professional" distributors of material.
“They have developed partnerships with audiovisual editors and content providers, with whom they share advertising revenue.” The sites also do programming, such as the Dailysport service created by DailyMotion and around 60 channels offered by YouTube to its French subscribers, the report said.
Google's YouTube is by far the largest online video provider in France, with about 30.6 million visitors each month, according to the CSA. DailyMotion follows in second place with 15.1 million visitors. And to the extent that Facebook and other social networking sites are content providers, they should also be taxed, the CSA says.
Separately, France is considering a tax on smartphones, tablets and other devices as another source of revenue for cultural grants. A government commission report released in May said a 1% tax should be imposed on sales of electronic devices that access movies, music and other content.
The proposed tax is estimated to bring government coffers 86 million euros per year, which will be used to finance “the digital transition of the cultural industry,” the French Ministry of Culture said at the time.
Trade associations representing French internet and technology companies have spoken out against the proposal, on which the government has yet to take action.
Rejecting the government's claim that a 1% tax would be "painless", the associations warned in July that the government should encourage the development of the digital economy, rather than taxing it.
Source: koutipandoras.gr
