The Newsroom

France 24 to close

Sarkozy says 'non' to channel - it will become France Monde (December 2007)

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NG
noggin Founding member
Connews posted:
I think they may be making a mistake.
Is it based on ratings? How good are the ratings on the channel?


I'm not sure there are reliable ratings for international news channels that get low audiences in each country but build to something slightly larger globally.

Instead most news channels quote how many homes they "are in" rather than how many people watch per minute, 3 minute, 5 minute, hour, day, week...
AB
ABC Australia
i feel sorry for all the staff who moved over to France to work at France 24, they'll have to find different jobs in France or move back overseas again
IS
Inspector Sands
noggin posted:

I'm not sure there are reliable ratings for international news channels that get low audiences in each country but build to something slightly larger globally.

Instead most news channels quote how many homes they "are in" rather than how many people watch per minute, 3 minute, 5 minute, hour, day, week...


Yes, it's done on potential audience. Channels like CNN and the BBC would almost certainly do audience research to get an idea of roughly who their audience is, but unlike BARB figures they aren't comparable with each other
IS
Inspector Sands
Mr Q posted:
Dumping France 24 sounds like good policy to me. I've never really cared for this ridiculous nationalistic attitude that certain countries take in feeling the need to publicly fund efforts to broadcast their 'voice' or 'perspective' abroad. I mean no disrespect to the French, but does anyone outside of France care what they think?


It's really the just the modern day equivalent of what lots of countrie did in the first half of the last century - creating international broadcasters like The World Service, VOA etc to spread the word and their particular angle on events.
RD
rdd Founding member
Mr Q posted:

As far as creating a French BBC goes - well, look, I don't know how effective the existing French public broadcasters are, but I can't imagine they'd be so utterly atrocious that they'd need the government to step in and completely overhaul their structure. Certainly I'm not sure what's meant to be achieved from removing all advertising from the existing networks - all it does is impose a greater burden on the taxpayers' purse.


I don't know of any other country in the world (maybe New Zealand) that has played around with the structure of its public television networks more than France. Going from RTF, to ORTF, to TF1 /Antenne 2 / FR3 and then to France Television(s), they've changed the structure quite a lot. Along the way they've been the only major European country to privatise their main PSB channel (as TF1 had been prior to the late 1980s). Another overhaul would merely be following on the heels of their four previous overhauls, so I wouldn't rule it out...
MQ
Mr Q
Inspector Sands posted:
Mr Q posted:
Dumping France 24 sounds like good policy to me. I've never really cared for this ridiculous nationalistic attitude that certain countries take in feeling the need to publicly fund efforts to broadcast their 'voice' or 'perspective' abroad. I mean no disrespect to the French, but does anyone outside of France care what they think?


It's really the just the modern day equivalent of what lots of countrie did in the first half of the last century - creating international broadcasters like The World Service, VOA etc to spread the word and their particular angle on events.

Indeed - but I'd like to think we've moved on from the sort of nationalistic thinking that was so common at that time. Apart from anything, the media marketplace has changed dramatically. Let's face it, there's hardly a shortage of international news channels around. In the case of France 24, as a non-French viewer, and given the different networks competing for my attention, I'm highly unlikely to choose a channel that was deliberately set up with the intention of broadcasting a French perspective on the world. That's where I see the problem, and why I think Sarkozy's right to cull it.

11 days later

RT
rts Founding member
Snub for Sarkozy news channel plans
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adamcobb55
I'm starting to like France 24 more (just as it looks likely to close!) The 10 minute bulletins do work especially when streamed from the web. Getting all the news in 10 minutes first thing in the morning when I only have 30 minutes to get ready out the door really is useful. France 24 also managed to break some news today! They were as far as I know the first to give the news of Rimano Prodi losing the vote of confidence in Italy

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