Media in France: radio, television, internet (2006)

Résumé du document

The history of the French television goes back to the 1930s, when the first channel was launched (Radio PTT-Vision), and France introduced television as the 4th country in the world to have television. The first channels in France were its state channels. The Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF) was the national agency in charge, between 1964 and 1974, with providing public radio and television systems in France. The introduction of private channels in 1984 and the privatisation of TF1 in 1987, led to a real boom of TV channels, and brought with it, a very competititive environment. Today, there are hundreds of TV channels in France. The cable and satellite systems are well developed. The most important TV channel in France is TF1. TF1 is a private French TV network, controlled by the TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's market share makes it the most popular domestic network. The second biggest TV channel group in France is France Televisions. France Télévisions is the French public national television broadcaster. It is funded mostly by television licences and advertising. Because of France's geographical and cultural diversity, local and regional programms are broadcasted in France by the oversea departments and France Televisions. Apart from these two major media groups, another media group that should be mentioned is Metropole Television. Their channel, M6's current on-air image suggests that it provides its service to adolescent and young-adult demographics. Finally, there is Canal channel, a premium pay television channel launched in 1984. France also takes part in international TV projects such as TV5 (together with Belgium, Switzerland and Canada), the global television network in French language or Arte (together with Germany), a channel dedicated to cultural programmes.

Extraits

[...] Media in France: radio, television, internet (2006) Introduction “Media represent the biggest power in our contemporary society“. (David Lodge in Le Monde de l'éducation - February 2000). The Radio in France nomadic medium above all others, freed from any spatial constraint, radio is moving, radio is entirely made of movement.” Radio was, for many decades the mass medium par excellence in France. At the dawn of the 21st century, radio is listened to regularly by over 80% of the French population. [...]

[...] In October 2005 it had over 113,300 employees is Bouygues. In October 2005 it had over 113,300 employees in 80 countries. In 2004, it generated 23.4 billion in sales. [...]

[...] Moreover, French is the second most popular language in the blogopshere, French people like to express themselves and debate their views. Many blogs are associated with newspapers, particularly in the view of presidential elections in 2007. We can quote the blog of Mr. Jupé, former Prime Minister and mayor of Bordeaux. The rap music radio called Skyrock was the pioneer in France promoting blogs (skyblog.com). Now there are around 3 million french kids blogging. So blogging is big in France. The French bloggeur revolution is being spearheaded by precocious youngsters. Three million of schoolchildren are bloggers. [...]

[...] The greatest French TV celebrities are Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, Thierry Ardisson, Marc-Olivier Fogiel. All the programs in France are watched by the CSA (The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel) whose role is to regulate the various electronic media in France, such as radio and television, including eventual censorship. France is now looking forward to the day of December when the long-awaited French government-backed global 24-hour French language satellite TV news channel France 24 will be launched. The internet in France The Internet revolution occurred in 1995 in France. [...]

[...] The German invasion of June 1940 put an end to this period of development. After WWII, radio in France faced a huge nationalization process, which established a State monopoly on all stations (Radio France being the main public service radio broadcaster), that led to the development of several pirate channels. The monopoly would finally end in 1981, giving more freedom to radio operators in France. Radio Programmes and their audience With time, structural changes and technological progress, with the example of the displacement from Long Wave to the FM Wave band, considerably shifted the radio audience. [...]