FRANCE / A date for the launch of France TV new news channel

On March 10^th France Télévision’s Deputy Director of News, Germain Dagognet, unveiled the launch date of the public broadcaster’s future 24-hour news channel: September 1^st 2016 at 6:00pm on the web, and September 1^st or 2^nd for DTT.

Germain Dagognet, who is also in charge of the project, said the news channel will need 160 jobs, mostly through internal redeployment within France Télévisions, and possibly some “through hiring externally”.

The channel will also take contributions from the editors of France 24, the radio station France Info and INA (Institut National de l’Audiovisuel).

Although the channel does not yet have an official name, in mid-January the Radio France group filed “France Info TV” at the Institut National de la Propriété Intellectuelle while Michel Field, Director of News at France Télévisions, has referred to “France Info”.

Both proposals have been criticized by the Sociétés de Journalistes (SDJ) of France 2, France 3 and francetvinfo.fr for “the confusion that this name would create in the minds of viewers, listeners and Internet users.”

For its part, the Syndicat National des Journalistes (SNJ – National Union of Journalists) at Radio France has expressed concern that “radio and television are now a single entity, whose editorial control will escape us.” According to the union, news programmes, “at half-past each hour, reduced to bare minimum, […] could disappear altogether, leaving just the headlines.”

In any case this will be the fourth 24-hour news channel on free DTT, with BFM TV (NextRadioTV group), i-TV (Canal +) and LCI (TF1) which becomes free on April 5^th. “We are not adding a channel which is like all the others” said Michel Field. “We are working on a completely new model. It is absolutely not hard news. The linear channel will be only one component of [a] digital news offer.”

Sources : Satellifax, Le Figaro, Ozap