Sibyle Veil, president of Radio France, is applying for a second term

This announcement was expected. Sibyle Veil, the president of Radio France, announced internally, Tuesday, September 6, to be a candidate for her succession at the head of the public radio group, which she has been leading since April 2018.

“I want you to be the first to know that I am about to submit [à l’Arcom, le régulateur de l’audiovisuel] my application for a renewal »she wrote in a message sent to employees of Radio France.

The Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom) will audition the candidates for the presidency of the group in November before appointing one of them by January 16 at the latest. To date, Sibyle Veil is the only declared candidate.

The decision of M.^me Veil, the first woman president of Radio France since Michèle Cotta in 1981, comes in a troubled context for public broadcasting, faced with the abolition of the license fee, which brought her most of her funding, i.e. 3.2 billion euros. euros out of a total of 3.8 billion euros.

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Opposed to the idea of ​​a big merger

At the end of June, the president of Radio France declared herself in an interview at Figaro opposed to the idea of ​​a major merger in the public audiovisual sector and had said that he wanted to know the state’s projects before applying for a second term.

Record audiences, acceleration of the digital strategy and democratization of culture are the three “major successes” of Radio France between 2018 and 2021, noted Arcom in an opinion published at the end of July about the results of Radio France. “Radio France managed in 2021 to install three of its radio stations among the ten stations with the highest audience share”France Inter appearing, since 2020, as the most listened to radio station in France, underlines Arcom.

Another strong point to the credit of the leader: “the democratization of culture, particularly for young audiences” with an involvement “exemplary” of the group, greeted the regulator. The latter also noted that Radio France had succeeded in changing its digital strategy to respond to changing uses: almost half of radio consumption is now done via the Internet. The regulator, however, invited the management of the group to more cooperation with the rest of the public audiovisual sector, in particular France Télévisions.

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historic strike

During her first mandate, Sibyle Veil set out to reduce costs within the “round house” by deploying in particular a job cut plan. This resulted in the leader being confronted with a historic strike movement launched in November 2019finally suspended in March 2020 with the appearance of the Covid-related health crisis.

The president nevertheless warned the deputies in mid-July that“a further reduction in our credits, if it were to take place, would today be experienced as a counter-premium for the effort”. For 2022-2023, youth and the environment are the two main goals set for Radio France by the president of the group, according to the main guidelines unveiled at the end of August.

Sibyle Veil, from the same promotion at the National School of Administration (ENA) as Emmanuel Macron, was adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysée Palace, then director of transformation at the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris ( AP-HP), before joining Radio France in 2015, as deputy director in charge of operations and finance.

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The World with AFP