Documentary on television

The Cosip Reform and its consequences for the French audiovisual market

Abstract

In this article, we will present a political reform implemented in French legislation for television documentaries — the so-called Cosip Reform. Implemented in 2014, this reform was carried out within the main French audiovisual agency — the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC). In this section, we will demonstrate how this legislation works in practice and the changes that have occurred within it. This reform was only feasible after pressure from market players linked to the auteur documentary industry, who together managed to have certain items of this legislation restructured. The result was a response from the French government, which commissioned a study to better understand the details of the documentary market and assess the effectiveness of the current public policy. To historically contextualize this specific cultural policy, we will conduct a retrospective of recent French governments and their relationships with the audiovisual sector. We therefore propose a reflection on the importance of periodically conducting thorough studies and evaluations of public policies to verify whether they are effective in achieving their intended purpose, whether they address technological changes, and what improvements can be proposed.