Sales Tax On TF1, M6, Canal+ May Be Halved

PARIS --A few days before the French audiovisual reform package will be voted on by the country's national assembly, ruling party parliamentarians Wednesday approved an amendment that aims to halve the proposed sales tax on private channels Television Francaise 1 SA (5490.FR), Metropole Television SA (5322.FR) and Canal Plus SA (12546.FR).

As part of France's audiovisual reform, which will notably ban advertising on public TV next year, the government initially proposed a 3% tax on private broadcasters' advertising revenues to compensate for the ban.

According to the amendment proposed by ruling party UMP member of parliament Christian Kert, this tax won't exceed 50% of the absolute value of the increase in advertising revenues, without however falling below 1.5%.

The year of reference taken to calculate the sales tax will be 2008, according to the amendment.

If approved, this tax rule will be in force until 2012, and could then be revised upwards.

Another amendment approved Wednesday wants to lower the 0.9% sales tax proposed by the government on the country's telecom operators to also help finance the ad ban.

If approved, the amendment would put in place a progressive tax of between 0.5% and 0.9%.

The French national assembly will examine the text with all its amendments on Nov. 25.

-By Ruth Bender, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 40 17 17 40; ruth.bender@dowjones.com