Managing abundance/a plethora : the challenge of the French audio-visual system

For the past fifty years, France has been building a system of support and regulation for the cinema and broadcasting industries which has proved its efficiency by enabling France to maintain its film industry. This system is based on an original institutional device, the CNC, a breakthrough in this sector. There are two types of support which have enabled the CNC to help the profession unite around the success of this device. The CNC permits the existence of a fertile breeding ground in new talent can emerge. However, the system is partly the victim of its own success, inasmuch as it does not know how to manage a huge number of projects. In addition, broadcasting and the cinema suffer from the lack of R&D which could develop numerous projects some of which will be abandoned. Having analysed the institutional mechanisms, David Kessler comments on the creative and industrial results, and questions the future of the system.