Public broadcasters calmed as Ministers translate M. Sarkozy

Michael Hedges January 10, 2008

Anytime a national leader suggests changes in any institution some people get very nervous. So it was earlier in the week as new French President Nicolas Sarkozy commented on French broadcasting. Share prices for commercial TV channels and advertising companies rose as public broadcasters eyed the window ledges.

M. Sarkozy has articulated his vision of French international broadcasting in rather vague terms. All government supported broadcasting would be, at least figuratively, under one roof. He picked out a name: France Monde. He hired Georges-Marc Benamou to organize it. Indeed, after his Tuesday (January 8) press conference, there’s some speculation that all French public broadcasting might find itself under one roof.

His predecessor M. Chirac brought the force of the French Presidency to bear when he insisted on creating an international television channel, originally called ‘Chaîne Française d'Information Internationale’ and popularly referred to as ‘CNN à la Française.’ Undeterred by institutional resistance from all quarters, particularly Radio France Internationale, AFP and others, Monsieur Le Presidente cajoled commercial network TF1 and public network France Télévisions to undertake the project as a joint venture. The result, two years later, was France 24.

France 24, according to M. Chirac, was necessary to counter the media dominance of Anglo-American channels CNN and BBC. Later that vision was expanded to include the Arabic channels as France 24 added Arabic with Spanish next on the schedule. The French government also contributes money and talent to the German-French culture network ARTE and the Francophone network TV5Monde. These, too, would be merged into France Monde.

France, Europe and the world had many years to learn the subtleties of M. Chirac’s language. M. Sarkozy, the world learns, is far less subtle. Given the accepted interpretation of France 24’s mission to bring the French point of view to the world meaning a competitor for CNN and BBC, media watchers focused on the program output. It was a given that France 24’s programs would look like CNN’s.

Listen carefully. M. Sarkozy seems to want French public broadcasting structured like the BBC… or, at least, the pre-1990 BBC – put it all under one organization and get rid of the advertising. In the Tuesday press conference M. Sarkozy said advertising should be taken off public TV, after which the share price of Groupe TF1, the major French commercial TV network, shot up nearly 10%. Public broadcasting, he said, would be financed by a tax on commercial broadcasters, thus ending the license fee paid by consumers. 

All of this takes place as the BBC looks for radical restructuring in a post-license fee era. Proposals under discussion include breaking up British public broadcasting into separate entities, even allowing the BBC to venture full-stop into commercial activities. Many European public service broadcasters follow every breathtaking change from the BBC or every suggestion. M. Sarkozy’s elucidation on broadcasting in the public sphere took broadcasters, here and there, by surprise not so much because what he said hadn’t been said before but because it was the second most prominent subject – after Carla – in his first major press conference of the new year.

The broadcast license fee paid by consumers is generally seen by European public broadcasters as “the best, worst solution.” Those with the power to tax, governments, are finding the broadcast license fee less than useful, and increasingly difficult to raise. The supposed fire-wall between public broadcasters and politicians is unpopular with politicians who would like editors to be ‘more responsive.’ The recently removed Polish President blamed his defeat on a get-out-the-vote campaign aired on Polish public television. Direct State financing insures a much more positive response when an elected official wants to explain his music preferences to a public radio program director.

That’s not to say that public broadcasters favor commercial exploitation through advertising. But the preference for ad-free channels is tempered by the wall of money available from advertising, particularly on TV and increasingly with online offerings. Where advertising is allowed on public broadcasting outlets the rather efficient, occasionally flawed, sales-house system provides a different fire-wall, separating broadcasters from advertisers. Some sales-houses are wholly owned by the public broadcasters, like AS&S (owned by ARD) in Germany. Some, like IP, are separate, for-profit companies. Sales-houses, working for both public and private broadcasters, set a prevailing rate for ads and, well, that is that.

Radio France, which produces several public radio channels, has for many years accepted advertising in a limited way from, mostly, State-owned companies. Most of the Radio France budget is paid by the license fee, advertising being a small but significant bonus.

But the pool of State-owned companies continues to shrink. Air France and France Telecom have been privatized. Gaz de France is next, costing Radio France about €2 million a year in ad revenue. Radio France COO Martin Ajdari asked that the difference be made up by accepting advertising from non-State companies. According to M. Sarkozy, that won’t happen.

By the time (Wednesday, January 9) the French Council of Ministers reflected on M. Sarkozy’s pronouncement on public broadcasting their response, bien sûr, was rather more tempered. The issue just isn’t on the calendar, said spokesperson Laurent Wauquiez.

“This question of removing advertising or not is not our goal. The building site is much broader,” he said, “giving a true direction to French public broadcasting and the whole audio-visual landscape.”

Asked about France 24, Wauquiez said, “It is surely not the end of France 24.”

Also not agreeing “completely” with M.Sarkozy on the proposed France Monde was French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

“Competing with an English (language) network like CNN, Al-Jazzera or BBC World appears useless to him, “ said M. Kouchner interpreting M. Sarkozy to a press gaggle. “For me, not completely. I think there is a ‘French touch’ to be worked out.”

“But the period of dialogue has hardly started and the design is not finished.”