France 24

France24

Country	France
Ownership
Owner	Groupe TF1 and France Télévisions
Key people	Alain de Pouzilhac

France 24 (formerly the Chaîne Française d'Information Internationale (CFII) before July 2006, or French International News Network in English), officially pronounced France Vingt-Quatre in both French and English, is a French government-funded global 24-hour satellite and cable TV news channel. It was launched on 6 December 2006 at 20:29 in Paris (UTC+1).

Corporate structure

It is run by a partnership between Groupe TF1 and France Télévisions (including France 2 and France 3), with some programmes sourced from Agence France-Presse, Radio France Internationale, TV5MONDE, Arte, EuroNews, and La Chaîne parlementaire. It is funded by France with an annual budget of approximately €80 million, and is based in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris.

Channel reception

France 24 is available by satellite to most of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as by cable and antenna to New York and Washington, D.C.. Both the French and the French/English channels are available live on the France 24 website, broadcast en direct in Windows Media format. A test version of the Arabic channel can also be found on the website.

Programming

France 24 is broadcast on two channels, one in French, the other predominantly in English with 4 to 6 hours of French per day. Arabic and Spanish programming will be added in the course of 2007. Along with 170 journalists of its own, France 24 can call on the resources of the two main French broadcasters (Groupe TF1 and France Télévisions) as well as partners such as AFP. The CEO of France 24 is Alain de Pouzilhac, and its journalist staff includes former ITN presenter Mark Owen and former TF1 newsreader Mélissa Theuriau.

Long-term France 24 goals

France 24 intends to give a different view of the news than the Anglophone BBC World and CNN International, which grew in importance with the Iraq war. France 24 wants to put more emphasis on debate, dialogue and the role of cultural difference. It will also be competing with the recently launched Al Jazeera English and Russia Today news channels. The future Arabic and Spanish programming will compete with Al Jazeera's Arabic channel and South America's teleSUR.

The French government has allocated around €100 million for the project. The European Commission gave the green light to France 24 in June, saying it did not breach European Union state aid rules.

External links

• Official Site
• France launches world TV channel, BBC News
• France launches global news channel, Al Jazeera English