After last year's Telethon was moved to Franay Studios in Saint-Cloud due to the gilets jaunes protest last December, the dome is back. They've moved to another location at the Parc de la Villette in Paris 19th Arrondissement (in the NE of the city) where they have the large dome and an outdoor area next to it with a chip stand and astroturf pitch where presenters can speak to fundraisers as well as celebrity guests.
The Telethon for those who don't know iis a charity event organized since 1987 by the French Association against myopathies (AFM) to fund research projects on neuromuscular genetic diseases.
Franceinfo has been affected by strikes over the past few weeks, with occasional large gaps in large programming replacing live broadcasts. Today has been quite something though. Normal until 1030, then taped programming until 1220, then normal again with no reference to the 110 min gap. Then a bulletin 1300-1320, back to taped programming, 1350 L'info outre-mer, then repeats of the 1300 bulletin and taped programming until 1520, normal until 1730, then repeats of 1700-1730 plus taped programming until 2000, a bulletin 2000-2002, taped programming, then back to normal at 2100. I wonder if this is due to tactical striking or to 'spread resources' of non-striking staff best, either way this is quite bizarre to watch.
Note that they've pumped everything into getting Le 6h info (the France 2 early morning bulletin produced by Franceinfo) and Le 6h30:9h30 out every day during these strikes.
I've also noticed some of the 13H France 2 bulletins have come from the 'cupboard' and it's easy to tell when 12/13 National is also striking when the presenter is left with one fixed shot for the whole bulletin.
Radio France (including Franceinfo la radio) have also been on strike for a few weeks now, with programming affected to varying degrees each day. This means that the simulcast news bulletins and interview programmes have only been appearing sporadically on the TV. Listening to the radio itself has been interesting, with programmes replaced by a musical playlist for hours on end at times. If the presenter/journalist for a particular segment is in strike, they go to music. So for example they have had the morning show some days without the TOTH and BOTH news bulletins. On some occasions they have been playing out the headline beds at the right moment, even though there is no presenter there to read the headlines (great news for pres fans). And there is no end in sight!
I never quite understood the point of France Ô as a separate channel. The overseas stations aren't huge production centers and the programs that they do produce (and that may be of interest to mainland residents, especially those with overseas connections) could easily fit on France 3 during off-peak hours.
Last edited by WW Update on 4 January 2020 5:40am - 2 times in total
Plus I see why they launched Okoo, their new streaming service for kids as well as France.tv Slash, for young adults.
Those two seem to be online replacements for France 4.
In what would appear to be a sort of 'crisis management exercise' Franceinfo has made rare in-season changes to its lineup today, notably weekday evenings and weekend daytimes:
- The daily magazine programme moves to 21h (with a new climate programme appearing on alternate Fridays)
- Patricia Loison will now do both her previous roles and those of Céline Bosquet for
Franceinfo soir
, including
Le 23h
- Céline Bosquet will replace Clémence de la Baume during her maternity leave (which was being covered by Alizé Lutran)
- Martin Baumer titularised as presenter weekends 10h-16h and presumably is now the 'joker' for Patricia Loison/Sorya Khaldoun
https://www.francetvpro.fr/franceinfo/communiques-de-presse/franceinfo-canal-27-les-nouveautes-a-partir-du-lundi-6-janvier
One of the worries the
Soir 3
team had, notably why they went on strike, is that they did not believe France Télévisions claim that
Le 23h
like
Soir 3
would have a dedicated, unique team - this is no longer the case as the presenter now presents all of the bulletins from 21h to 0h.
And after a brief reprieve over Christmas, journalists at Franceinfo radio are on strike again - today's entire radio schedule replaced by a music playlist, therefore no headline updates at :20/:30/:40/:50 from 'la maison de la radio' during the daytime, or simulcast radio/TV political interviews.
The 10h-16h weekend shift on Franceinfo is the longest pres shift on the schedule, but there is a LOT of padding with largely 45 minutes of filler in most hours with Radio France providing headlines.
As for Patricia Loison extending her airtime, I'm not surprised. With Clémence de la Baume going on maternity leave, it's given France Télévisions the excuse to move Céline to weekend afternoons and get more out of Patricia airtime wise.
Incidentally, France 5 are repeating the excellent drama Speakerine which is based on a continuity announcer at RTF in 1962.