“I assume and I don’t shirk”. Auditioned in the Senate on Wednesday, Vincent Bolloré tried to get rid of his image as an actor in the shadow of the presidential election. But, in front of senators worried about his growing influence in the media, he never stopped minimizing the extent of Vivendi in the face of “foreign” giants, while dodging questions about his political role.
To hear the Breton businessman, the senators questioned for two hours an “adviser”, a “scapegoat”, whose “expiry period is coming to an end”, as February 17 approaches, the day of the bicentenary. of the family group, and especially the date on which he intends to pass the orders to his children.
A revealing slip?
Largest shareholder of Canal+, two major publishing groups (Editis and Hachette), numerous newspapers (Prisma Media magazines, JDD, Paris Match), one of the heavyweights in advertising/communication (Havas) and radio Europe 1, Vincent Bolloré, 69, is the figure who best illustrates the influence of a media empire, his hearing was therefore eagerly awaited.
Faced with questions about the place given on his CNews channel to Eric Zemmour despite his multiple convictions for incitement to hatred, he affirmed that he “never did politics”, recalling that the presidential candidate had previously intervened on channels and newspapers. competitors and posing as a defender of “freedom of expression”. “No one knew he was going to be President of the Republic,” he added in an obvious slip, claiming to have had lunch “only once” with the polemicist to recruit him.
On the merits, Vincent Bolloré explained that the French media giant Vivendi which he controls is actually “very small” in the face of the “real danger” of foreign competition from the giants of the net, the Gafam. But its growth is possible, with the aim of promoting French culture abroad, he explained. “The media is the second most profitable economic sector today in the world, after luxury. (…) Our interest is neither political nor ideological: it is a purely economic interest”.
The dangers of Gafam on French culture
Very comfortable, he sometimes got tense, tackling for example the planned evolution of the media chronology which paves the way for financing of French creation by SVoD platforms (Amazon, Apple, Disney or Netflix) against faster access to these creations. The Gafam “what interests them is possibly gaining a foothold in France and standardizing the same film around the world, so there is little chance that it will be French culture that will come out of it”. “If it is your choice to open the door to Gafam to destroy Canal, you do what you want and then Canal will manage, adapt”.
Other press and audiovisual magnates will appear in the coming days before this commission of inquiry, which is due to report in March on the economic and democratic consequences of such a concentration. The hearings of Bernard Arnault, Patrick Drahi and Martin Bouygues are notably planned.