French (non uk) regional tv

Was thinking spend time on here talking about uk regional/ local tv made me wonder how do thefrench/ other countries do it and thought there should maybe be a discussion thread to do this with.

Most of Europe has either local or regional channels. France and Switzerland for example have regional channels which provide news and low budget programming.

PSB wise in France, France 3 is divided up into regions which have regional news and in the case of Corsica, some opt-out programming.

I would add that there are a few slots in the week where France 3 is also regionally divided and air regional magazines or documentaries (usually after the Soir 3 nightly news, or, for some regions, on Saturday afternoon).

Plus a daily (Mon-Fri) mid-morning show called "9h50 le matin" which has a version for each "new region", and a weekly politics talk programme "Dimanche en Politique" aired on Sundays with a regional part and a national part.

Overseas territories each have their own PSB television channel, branded as "[territory name] la Première."

Here's an interesting compilation of Swiss news intros; it includes the national channels, but most of the intros are from the regional stations:





Indeed. This is an example of a non-news program from France 3 Via Stella, France Télévisions's special service for Corsica:





Here's an edition of 9h50 Le Matin for the Center-Loire Valley region:

BTW, this is what the regional news on France 3 (for the Alps, in this case) looks like; this look is on its way out, with a new design set to launch on February 5:



Some small regions and cities also get dedicated sub-opt-outs. This is the Bordeaux edition (in this case with extensive coverage of a new train station opening in the city):

Also, some France 3 regions have daily (or, in some cases, weekly) news segments in minority languages. For instance, here's a segment in Occitan, which is spoken in southern France:

Which try to speak the local languages in the most "French-influenced" accent as possible..

France also has at least two regional news channels...

BFM Paris, serving the capital:



And GrandLilleTV, serving the Lille metropolitan area:

Until a few years ago, an other national channel used to offer news opt-outs in some big cities: M6.

Viewers in big French cities (Paris excluded) could watch local versions of the anchorless newscast Six Minutes around 8:37pm, after the national edition (aired around 7:50pm) and some humor series such as Caméra Café .

Cities that used to have their local Six Minutes :


For example, here's Six Minutes Grenoble in 1994.


And here is one of the recent ones, aired in 2007:


M6 often partnered with local newspapers for these local newscasts. The first one launched in Bordeaux in 1989 in partnership with the Sud-Ouest newspaper.

But some of these newscasts ended, starting from 2003. And all local opt-out newscasts from M6 had already ended when Le 19·45 replaced Six Minutes in 2009.

BTW, if you're *really* interested in French regional television and understand some French, this book provides an interesting historical overview:


Image: decitre.fr

Benoit Lafon; Histoire de la télévision régionale: De la RTF à la 3, 1950-2012; INA Editions, 2012

Meanwhile, this English-language book covers regional television in various European countries around the turn of the century:


Image: Amazon.com

Bernat Lopez,‎ Miquel de Moragas Spa,‎ Carmelo Garitaonandia (editors); Television on Your Doorstep: Decentralization Experiences in the European Union; University of Luton Press, 1999

Here's an interesting English-language video about RAI's regional station in South Tyrol / Alto Adige. This Italian region is officially trilingual, so the station broadcasts newscasts in German (the majority language), Italian, and Ladin:



Austria's ORF also airs regional news for South Tyrol -- a rare example of a broadcaster producing a newscast for a region in another country:

I noticed that, for some reason, the France 3 regional news clip posted above doesn't display correctly on all browsers, so here's another edition from the same week -- it's the noon newscast for the French Alps: