Advertising banned on France's state-owned channels

by Staff, Brand Republic 05-Jan-09, 09:15

PARIS - Primetime advertising will disappear from France's state-owned television channels from tonight after president Nicolas Sarkozy pushes through an effort to create a public television service to "rival the quality of the BBC".

Many French television journalists are resisting the change by striking today and tomorrow. They believe Sarkozy's true motive is to shift shrinking advertising revenue to the larger privately-owned broadcasters.

Sarkozy claims that relieving the two state-owned channels -- France 2 and France 3 -- from chasing ratings to attract advertisers will yield higher quality and more culturally valuable programming.

France 2 and France 3 journalists allege the move is a blatant attempt to undermine independent news gathering on the state-owned channels and will only benefit the large, privately-owned channels struggling under dwindling advertising revenue.

The legislation also states that the head of France Televisions, the national public broadcaster, will be hand-picked by the government.

Critics allege this will only be a step backwards towards the old days of politically motivated French television.

Patrick de Carolis, the current head of France Televisions, called the advertising ban "stupid and unjust" when the idea was first floated around last year. However, last month he agreed to the changes until legislation was complete.

Privately-owned channels will also be allowed to air longer commercial breaks per hour, jumping up to nine minutes of ads per hour compared to the previous six.

The state-owned channels, including three new cable channels, are presently funded by both advertising and a television licence fee similar to the one used in the UK.

The French licence fee costs €116 (£110), compared to £139.50 in the UK.

When the legislation is complete, the €450m (£425m) in lost prime-time advertising revenue will be covered by a levy on the commercials aired on privately-owned channels and a small mobile phone tax.

By 2012, Sarkozy plans to ban all advertising from the state-owned channels, not just during primetime.