Arcom’s 2026-2028 strategic plan: towards stronger digital regulation to protect creative works and public debate
On 19 May, Arcom (French audiovisual and digital regulator) unveiled its new strategic plan for 2026-2028. The three-pillar plan was presented by its President, Martin Ajdari, at a press conference.
A regulator with new responsibilities
Since its creation in 2022, Arcom has steadily expanded its remit. Its historic responsibilities, inherited from the CSA and Hadopi, have been supplemented by new ones: implementing the DSA in France, age verification on pornographic websites, monitoring artificial intelligence services, supporting neighbouring rights for the press, and bringing the major platforms (Netflix, Amazon, Disney) into the financing of creative works.
Three shifts reshaping the landscape
The first is the accelerating shift of consumption towards digital. People aged 15 to 34 already spend more than two thirds of their daily time on social networks and video platforms, and 85% of 15 to 24-year-olds use AI. This transformation raises unprecedented democratic questions: for example, according to a study by the think tank Terra Nova, 16% of French people surveyed say they already ask an AI who to vote for.
The second is the degradation and polarisation of public debate. According to Arcom’s President, “information manipulation is being deployed on an unprecedented scale, for the purposes of advertising monetisation or political destabilisation”. The recent municipal election campaign offered a foretaste of this, with foreign interference and suspicions of algorithmic advantages granted to certain candidates.
The third is the risk of economic collapse of traditional media, the pillars of news and creative output. One figure sums up the scale of the shock: the share of the advertising market held by the press, television and radio will fall from more than half in 2019 to around 20% in 2030. “The house is on fire”, to borrow Martin Ajdari’s phrase, and “there can be no pluralism without economically healthy media, no fruitful debate in a digital wild west, and no cultural model without the protection of copyright.”
It is against this background that Arcom’s new strategic plan has been drawn up, built around three pillars to be rolled out over the next three years in order to provide a coherent framework for all of its responsibilities.
Pillar 1: Protecting audiences in the audiovisual and digital space, particularly minors
Protecting minors online: Arcom intends to strengthen age verification on pornographic websites and platforms, in particular in the context of the new digital age of majority, while taking into account the risks associated with generative AI.
Combating online hate: the regulator plans to draw on its revamped dedicated observatory to hold platforms accountable for illegal content and hate dynamics, working with the judicial authorities and European initiatives against cyberbullying.
Protecting public health: the aim is to make it easier to identify and remove dangerous content, and to analyse platforms’ advertising repositories in order to assess young people’s exposure to commercial communications relating to food and addictive products.
Digital accessibility: more than twenty years after the Equal Rights Act (French disability rights law of 2005), most public digital services remain inaccessible to people with disabilities. Arcom wishes to support their compliance by handling reports and automating follow-up.
Pillar 2: Ensuring the reliability, independence and pluralism of information
Combating disinformation: Arcom intends to protect the integrity of elections by holding platforms and influencers accountable, coordinating stakeholders with Viginum (the French agency for vigilance and protection against foreign digital interference) and monitoring new risks linked to AI and synthetic content, while supporting the economics of professional news media.
Pluralism and independence: the regulator plans to ensure compliance with the obligations of honesty and rigour incumbent on audiovisual media, to clarify the rules applicable to political figures and to prepare for the implementation of the European Media Freedom Act, particularly as regards merger control and transparency of media ownership.
Public service broadcasting: the aim is to strengthen the requirement of impartiality by clarifying its scope and assessing the mechanisms that guarantee the independence and exemplary conduct of public channels in the light of audience expectations.
Media literacy: in partnership with the French Ministry of Education, Arcom wishes to develop young people’s critical thinking and digital skills, involve platforms in this educational effort and draw on its regional network to share this knowledge with all audiences.
Pillar 3: Supporting the financing and protection of creative works and the competitiveness of French audiovisual players
Combating piracy : Arcom intends to simplify blocking procedures, involve technical intermediaries more closely and reassess the future of the graduated response scheme, taking into account its educational effectiveness and changing consumption patterns.
Financing creative works: the regulator plans to consolidate platforms’ contribution to European and French-language works, to ensure that neighbouring rights for the press are effective and to pay particular attention to the protection of copyright in the face of AI, especially the traceability of content used to train AI systems.
The future of DTT: the aim is to help national and local broadcasters adapt to competition from platforms, by acting at European level to rebalance the rules of the game and guarantee the visibility of content of general interest on all interfaces.
Digital transition of radio : Arcom wishes to support the roll-out of DAB+, define a path towards the gradual phasing out of FM and work, in France and in Europe, to guarantee the visibility, accessibility and economic sustainability of the sector.
Economic viability: the crux of the matter
Running through this strategic plan, artificial intelligence emerges as the common thread across all three pillars: a vector for disinformation, a tool for algorithmic recommendation and a threat to copyright. Arcom acknowledges this and is launching a growing number of workstreams accordingly.
Beyond regulatory issues, Arcom also states that it places the competitiveness of audiovisual players at the heart of its priorities. Television and radio stations and the groups that operate them bear heavy obligations in terms of pluralism, cultural diversity and accessibility. The regulator considers that their economic viability and the way their offering is financed cannot be separated from these public interest missions. This is a way of recognising that regulation will not be enough if the players it is meant to protect are no longer able to produce and broadcast.
One question remains that the document does not resolve: does the regulator have the means to achieve this? Faced with platforms whose market capitalisations exceed the GDP of several European states, and in a context of persistent budgetary constraints, the stated ambition will have to be tested against the reality of its human and financial resources.
Sources
Arcom’s 2026-2028 strategic plan: stronger digital regulation to protect the French public
Speech by Martin Ajdari, President of Arcom, at the presentation of Arcom’s 2026-2028 strategic plan
“IA et politique : vers un outil d’aide, voire d’influence sur la décision ?”, Terra Nova, 18 May 2026
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