French marketers and television executives are digesting a proposal from President Nicolas Sarkozy to remove advertising from the country's public-service TV stations.

 

They would be financed, instead, by a levy on the ad revenues of privately-owned broadcasters, who currently earn around €3.2 billion annually and would pull in even more from extra demand for their airtime.

 

The government is also looking to tap into the €17 billion ($24.9bn; £12.7bn) in annual revenues earned by France's internet and mobile phone providers - a move that has been fiercely opposed by the industries in the past.

 

Sarkozy's proposals are part of a blueprint for extensive media reform in France, which would also encompass ownership rules.

 

He says the changes in ad regulations are intended to create a marked difference between public service and commercial broadcasting and are aimed to produce quality programming and promote French TV production.

 

The state-owned France Télévisions group notched up €835m ($1.2bn; £624.7m) worth of ad revenues in 2006, around 40% of its income; the rest comes from a licence fee, similar to that collected from British householders to fund the BBC.

 

The president also announced France 24, the news channel launched by his predecessor Jacques Chirac just over a year ago, will be merged into a new French-language channel, France Monde, to give a "vision that is more French".

 

France 24 is broadcast in French, English and Arabic and was designed to present a counterpoint to English language services such as CNN and BBC World.

 

Source: WARC, International Herald Tribune

 

WFA is liaising with its French National Advertiser Association Member (UDA) to ensure advertisers’ interests are represented vis-à-vis ongoing discussions surrounding advertising on public TV channels. For more information please contact w.gilroy@wfanet.org

 

To view the Press Release related to this from UDA please click below (in French).