So be it. Orchestrated by Nicolas Sarkozy, the plan to reform public broadcasting has already seen its principal measure ratified by the Board of Directors of France Télévisions. As a result, there are no more commercials on the group’s five channels between eight in the evening and six in the morning, effective as of last night.
This change comes after the National Assembly adopted the bill to reform public broadcasting overnight on December 15th to 16th. The Senate vote is scheduled to begin on January 7th. Initially expected in December, the review was postponed by about three weeks following criticism from the opposition. Indeed, the left has filed numerous amendments to prevent the implementation of this project. This has sparked outrage among the unions and the staff of France Télévisions, who called a strike starting Monday at France 3 (with 27% participating), then Wednesday at France 2, the day the reform is examined. The UMP, which holds the majority, is expected to vote largely in favor, while senators from the Socialist Party, the Greens, and the Communist Party are expected to vote against. Numerous protests by journalists throughout the second half of 2008 achieved nothing. The coming week promises to be turbulent.
Program Schedule Changes
In the long term, the goal is to eliminate advertising from television on public channels by the end of 2011. For now, the number of ad pages will increase during the day on France Télévisions but also, notably, a second break has been introduced on other channels during evening broadcasts (a minimum half-hour interval between breaks must be respected). This is a model similar to the American system. In the United States, broadcasting twenty minutes of ads per hour in the evening is common. This is not very convenient for watching a movie.
The elimination of advertising also alters the program schedule. With no long advertising banner after the news broadcast, which is now four minutes shorter, the evening on France 2 starts at 8:35 PM. The same goes for France 3, which has moved the start time of the soap opera “Plus Belle La Vie” to 8:10 PM. M6 is aligning with this schedule, but not TF1, nor Canal+, where the Grand Journal hosted by Michel Denisot is in jeopardy with this change. For his part, Nonce Paolini, the CEO of the leading channel, believes that “the French prefer to see a movie start around 8:50 PM.” More to follow starting January 7th…
