France Télévisions not ruling out job cuts
May 12, 2026
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
At a time when BBC is to cut one in ten staff, Stéphane Sitbon-Gomez, France Télévisions deputy general manager, hasn’t ruled out cutting jobs owing to budgetary reasons from now until the French presidential elections in 2027.
In charge of output and editorial strategy at the French PSB Group, the executive opened up during a meeting with the Association of Media Journalists (AJM) in Paris.
Following the end of the TV licence fee, the group is living under the threat of state financial cuts. “In 2025, we suffered three budget cuts. In 2026, we had two. When I arrived in 2015, the cost of national network was €1.07 billion, it fell to €852 million in 2026. France Télévisions, which is going to know its allowed budget by the end of the year, cannot fulfil the same missions with less money,” he warned, predicting that the group will make “ a cheaper network, by reducing everything” in 2027.
Regarding investment into French production, he also suggested that if TF1 and France Télévisions merely comply with their obligations, there will be a €150 million decrease in 2027. “That is 150 to 200 hours less produced next year. And this hypothesis is based on the fact that the turnover of broadcasters does not decrease,” he added.
“And if France Télévisions just applies its investment obligations in cinema, we will go from €65 million to €53 million in investment, or about fifteen fewer films. This can go even further, because France Télévisions is co-financing a diversity of films. In 2027, the entire French cultural ecosystem can collapse heavily,” he warned.
As in other European countries, PSB broadcasters in France are facing hard times from political parties that are changing the political environment and ruining the political consensus around the French cultural exception. A report, written by far-right deputy Charles Alloncle in the wake of the controversial and court-like parliamentary commission on the public radio and TV service, has left strong negative effects in part of the opinion.
Moved by a rampant desire for privatisation and the ideological goal of wiping out everything that makes up the ethos of public service, Alloncle is lobbying for the merger of France 2 and France 5, axing France 4, and freeing up two channels from DTT, allowing opponents such as conservative multi billionaire Bolloré group to submit applications in the name of diversity.
“We are faced with currents of political opinion that want to weaken the cultural exception and cultural sovereignty, playing finally the game of American groups. If in the end, Netflix finds itself the leading investor of production in France, the prediction of Canal+ CEO, Maxime Saada, who said that French creation will become American, will come true,” concluded Sitbon-Gomez.
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