The smartphone tax was one of 80 proposals included in Mr Lescure's 500-page report.

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Yet at the same time, Mr Lescure insists that the quotas protecting the French film industry have been crucial.

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Mr Lescure was too close to his baby to take the hard-nosed decisions needed to turn Canal Plus round.

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Mr Lescure said this was under "immense threat" by the domination of big international actors that can now circumvent such protections.

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Lescure was pushed out in April, and Diller, who had sold USA Networks to Vivendi in December of 2001, was put in charge of the entertainment assets.

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Pierre Lescure, Canal Plus's chief executive, was excited by the prospect of a deal with Mr Murdoch, partly because he dreaded the prospect of a fight with him.

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Mr Lescure's replacement, Xavier Couture, faces a rough ride.

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The study, led by the former CEO of French pay-TV channel Canal Plus, Pierre Lescure, proposed a total of 75 measures to "protect the cultural exception in the face of digital innovation".

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Pierre Lescure, a former head of Canal Plus, the television channel, was commissioned by Mr Hollande to make recommendations on how France should adapt its commitment to preserving French-language culture in the fast-changing digital era.

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Mr Hollande, who has insisted "l'exception culturelle" must be excluded from forthcoming trade negotiations between the EU and the US, said in a statement welcoming the Lescure report that he was "fundamentally attached to the defence" of French culture.

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