ITV

Tag: Jacques Chirac

  • France to launch intl news channel next year

    MUMBAI: France has given the nod for an international television news channel to start broadcasting in French by the end of next year. The aim is to spread the country’s vision to the world.

    Media reports indicate that CFII will carry the values of France and its vision of the world everywhere on the globe.

    The idea was introduced and promoted by the French president Jacques Chirac, and it was highlighted in the run up to war in Iraq, due to Paris’ opposition to US-led conflict. The French cabinet argues the new French channel would promote a vision of a multipolar world that is not dominated by one superpower, and will put the country at the forefront of the global battle of images.

    The new channel, with 240 staff, will initially broadcast to Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and later possibly expand to Asia, the US and South America. The state will fund the channel under an agreement lasting until 2010. Thirty million euros in credits have been set aside in the 2005 budget and €65 million in the 2006 budget.

  • The French want more ethnic diversity on TV

    The French want more ethnic diversity on TV

    MUMBAI: In a poll taken following the recent ethnic riots throughout France, most of the French public say that they would like to see greater ethnic diversity on television.

    The poll was released a few days ago just as French President Jacques Chirac was preparing to meet with television executives.Media reports indicate that Chirac and network executives will discuss showing content that better reflect the country’s racial composition.

    According to the survey, which was conducted by the CSA research firm for the daily newspaper Le Parisien 79 per cent of respondents agreed with Chirac’s statement stating “The media must better reflect the French reality of today. 18 per cent disagreed and three per cent expressed no opinion. The polled questioned 957 people.

    France, with a larger proportion of non-European minorities than any of its neighbors, has been in denial of the increasingly multiethnic makeup of its society for decades. The disparity between the country’s monochromatic image of itself and the multicolored reality frustrates young citizens from non-European immigrant backgrounds and has added to their sense of alienation.
     
    This was expressed most graphically in the arson that swept the country for nearly three weeks.Observers have attributed the civil unrest to disaffected youths of North and West African origin, who have difficulty finding employment and fitting into French society.

  • French rival to BBC, CNN gets EC clearance

    French rival to BBC, CNN gets EC clearance

    MUMBAI: The European Commission gave its go-ahead on Tuesday to plans for a French international television news network to rival the BBC and CNN.

    The French International News Channel (CFII) is a joint operation between state broadcaster France Television and the the private channel TF1, with the government providing 30 million euros ($48.21 million) to get it started.

    The EC, according to agency reports, has stated that although the project involved state aid, the possibility of the channel being authorised as a project financing a service of general economic interest cannot be ruled out.

    The commission also concluded that the project offered sufficient guarantees against the risk of distortion of competition, for example by preventing unjustified transfers of public funds to France Television and TF1, who will be shareholders in the future channel.

    French President Jacques Chirac championed the idea of the new network during the diplomatic spat with the United States in the run-up to the Iraq war.

    He was said to be unhappy with the way French policies were presented on international stations such as Britain’s BBC World and the US-based CNN.

    The programmes will mostly be in French, although English and other languages would also be used, and, though they would be beamed to several countries, they will not be seen in France itself – limiting the attraction for French advertisers.

  • Bidders pitch for French global news channel

    Bidders pitch for French global news channel

    MUMBAI : This is an initiative that aims at putting a European spin on news and currents affairs happenings. French media companies have submitted bids for the creation of an international television news channel. For a year now the country’s President Jacques Chirac has been keen on providing people with a French-flavoured alternative to the two global news giants CNN, BBC World .
     
     
    The Iraq war saw BBC and CNN gain huge ground in terms of viewership across the globe. France along with Germany strongly opposed the war and so the proposed channel would offer a counter perspective.

    A Reuters report states that the main French state-owned TV and radio groups made a case that their existing networks abroad would allow them to target 36 million homes in the Middle East, Africa and Europe, using English and Arabic as well as French at an early stage. The plan is to have the channel up and running by next year.

    French broadcaster LCI wants a 50:50 venture with the state sector groups in the running, France Television and Radio France Internationale (RFI). It also maintained that the state would have to foot the bill.

    LCI News channel was set up a decade ago but its audience is limited to the French. LCI’s plan is to provide subtitles in English or Arabic for global audiences, Around 30 to 40 per cent of the programme content would differ from the news and debates aired in France.

    Another proposal comes from RFI. It plans to set up the international news channel with France Television at a cost of around 35 million euros ($38 million) a year. One more party said to be in the fray Canal Plus has stated that its experience in the delivery of digital TV would come in handy but stayed silent on the issue of the kind of content that it would offer.

  • Chirac wants a French global news channel

    Chirac wants a French global news channel

    MUMBAI: Joining the bandwagon of international news channels like CNN, BBC World will be a French news channel.
     
     
    According to a report in The Telegraph (France), President Jacques Chirac has demanded that the blueprint for the news service – already nicknamed “CNN a la Francaise” – be ready by the end of this month as he has become increasingly irritated by the “Anglo-Saxon” view of global events being beamed into millions of homes and hotel rooms around the world.

    He wants to challenge America’s domination of international affairs by extending French language and influence, the report adds.

    “We’ve been concerned for a long time that the BBC and CNN are reporting on events from a British or American perspective and in English,” a Government official is quoted as having said in the report. “As recent events have shown, France may see things differently and we feel it is important that we get our message across,” he added.

    A Reuters report , however states that the French channel would be a round-the-clock, global TV news channel modelled on US and British news channels like CNN and BBC World. it further quotes the French president as saying, “This is a legitimate aspiration for our country and I would like to see it happen.Moreover France needed to be more present in the battle of pictures,through TV sets across the globe.”

    France’s parliament had set up a committee in December 2002 to study how such a TV operation could be financed and operated. The committee is expected to publish its conclusions by June 2003.

    “This would be something completely different. The target audience would be foreigners, rather than French expatriates, the idea being to offer a different viewpoint to existing news media like CNN,” one parliamentarian involved is quoted as having said in the Reuters report.

    France has a domestic cable news channel, LCI, owned by commercial television group TF1, which broadcasts news bulletins, current affairs programmes and interviews. However, it has limited international reach.

    Apart from CNN and BBC world, another popular 24-hour international channel in Europe is Euronews, whose main shareholders are Britain’s ITN and public broadcasters in France, Spain, Italy and Russia. Euronews is broadcast in seven languages and can be seen in Canada, the Middle East, eastern Europe and Russia.