The first woman to become president of France Télé 10 years ago, who is Delphine Ernotte Cunci?

At 58, she was appointed to the helm of the public group for the third time on Wednesday, a record. In 2015, having come from the telecoms sector, she became the first woman to become president of France Télé.

She promised that her new five-year term, until 2030, would be synonymous with "passing the baton to a new generation."

His start was not easy, with his appointment attacked by several of the group's unions.

His outspokenness also caused offense: "We have a television set of white men over 50" and "that's going to have to change." Several figures were dismissed: David Pujadas, Julien Lepers, Patrick Sébastien, William Leymergie...

"There were only 25% women on our airwaves and today we are at 50/50," says the woman for whom "being a feminist is not a dirty word."

At first, "I was also accused of illegitimacy because I wasn't part of the inner circle," the slender and discreet fifty-something recently recalled in La Tribune Dimanche.

Before television, this engineer, who graduated from Centrale, spent most of her career at Orange, eventually becoming executive director of Orange France and its 80,000 employees.

"I learned about journalism, fiction, cinema, and entertainment," admits this daughter of doctors and granddaughter of a former mayor of Bayonne.

Mother of two children, she already had a taste for theatre, with her actor husband Marc Ernotte.

"Air of the times"

Pragmatic, she blended into the France Télé culture, defending "the representation of all French people and all territories".

In 2024, she declared that on the airwaves, "we do not represent France as it is", but "we try to represent France as we would like it to be".

In a polarized media world, these remarks earned her harsh criticism. She later denied that she wanted to "distort reality," asserting that it was a matter of "encouraging greater diversity."

She remains hated by the media of ultra-conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.

Thus, for Pascal Praud, headliner of CNews, "Ms. Ernotte has wokized France TV," like "the Eva Peron of the camp of Good," in reference to the Argentinian pasionaria.

For his part, former M6 boss Nicolas de Tavernost admits that "she sometimes gets a little too much in tune with the times." But "she is one of the best public service leaders we've ever known," he praised to AFP, describing her as "a woman of her word" who has "character."

"A tank, yes," but "it's not imagination in power," counters another private media executive, pointing to overly "administrative" management and a renewal "between public officials."

Politics? "Not my thing"

Delphine Ernotte Cunci's achievements include the launch of the franceinfo channel in 2016 (whose audiences remain low, however), and more recently the merger of France 3 and France Bleu under the "Ici" brand.

It has also set up several platforms: Okoo, Lumni, and france.tv, promoted as the "first free platform" in France. But France Télévisions "must accelerate its digital transformation" to adapt to new uses and young audiences, the General Inspectorate of Finance urged in 2024.

The France Télé boss's current hobbyhorse is a joint holding company for public broadcasting—one that has been constantly delayed. She should logically position herself to take the reins.

This project, pushed by the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, has earned him a series of internal strikes and hostility at Radio France, where there are fears of television supremacy.

Another dispute: with the unions. "The social climate has deteriorated considerably," estimates the CGT union at France TV, which notes "a net reduction of nearly 1,000 jobs out of 10,000 in ten years," against a backdrop of budgetary austerity.

A networker, Delphine Ernotte Cunci knows how to maneuver. Politics? "It's not my thing," assures the president, whose sister Marie-Christine Lemardeley is deputy mayor of Paris.

Last year, she told Causeur magazine: "I'm a business owner and nothing else. What I like is managing and making decisions."