MANDATE The group will have to deal with the abolition of the audiovisual license fee, enacted in early August
Sibyle Veil, CEO of Radio France, in Paris on July 20, 2022. — ROMUALD MEIGNEUX
Radio France keeps its head. In office since April 2018, Sibyle Veil has been renewed Monday at; the presidency of the public group with the ambition to open it up more to the youngest.
“Very honored by the decision of the college of Arcom and very happy to continue with all the employees of Radio France for this magnificent house of radio, music and service. 5 more years, what a joy,” she reacted on Twitter after the announcement of her renewal. She won against two candidates: journalist Florent Chatain and Maïa Wirgin, secretary general of the Court of Auditors.
Record audiences
At 45, Sibyle Veil was the favourite, on the strength of a first marked term. by record audiences – 15.4 million daily listeners on average last year – with two stations, France Inter and France Info, among the three most listened to radio stations in the country. However, this appointment comes in a particular context: that of financial uncertainty after the abolition of the audiovisual license fee, Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise made in early August.
In front of Arcom on Monday, the énarque, who had joined the group in 2015, defended a project entitled; “New Generations” “Young people bring about revolutions in usage and cultural revolutions that eventually take hold. Which means that if we arrive at to win this battle, we will have succeeded in win all the others,” the leader.
Towards an “audio library of knowledge”
At the heart of this strategy, Radio France”s digital platform, which it intends to transform into an “audio library of knowledge” free and modern, in particular by bringing together “public service audio content”. A process initiated since 2020 with Arte, France Télévisions, France M&medias World, the National Audiovisual Institute (Ina), specified Sibyle Veil, indicating that she is also thinking with these last three public groups about develop France Info as “a social media”.
“With our alliance, we have the ability to to be a real strike force, a sort of anti-fakenews commando” “We have to put the package on social networks: today on TikTok, tomorrow on the future network that we do not yet know,” she continued. “We have to go and fight the misinformation out there. where they multiply on their land and for that (…) we must build the social power of our information media”.
At L’ENA with Emmanuel Macron
Coming from the same promotion at; the ENA qu’Emmanuel Macron, Sibyle Veil was advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy at; lÉlysée, then Director of Transformation at; the AP-HP, before entering in 2015 at RadioFrance. She has been the first female president of Radio France since Michèle Cotta in 1981. During her first term, she set out to; reduce costs there, in particular by deploying a vast job cuts plan. This resulted in a historic strike movement triggered by in November 2019.