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Get Four
|  | OCTOBER 23, 2003
By Stephanie Trastour and Christina Passariello Cable News with a French Accent President Jacques Chirac's government is set to launch its own, low-budget world news channel. Can it hope to compete with the likes of CNN? Imagine a CNN-like news outlet with a female anchor narrating the headlines while a news ticker runs across the bottom of the screen. But wait -- is that French she's speaking? Mais, oui! Tired of what it sees as a predominantly American spin on global news, France is planning to launch the French International News Channel (CFII), the country's first global cable news network. By the end of 2004, the 24-hour news and information station, 100% financed by the state, will hit the airwaves not only in French but also possibly in English and Arabic. The idea of a French all-news channel competing with CNN and the BBC is being hotly questioned in France and abroad. The budget and target audience will fall far short of its peers, concedes the French government, whose hands-on role also raises doubt about the network's editorial independence. "Clearly, the creation of the CFII is a political move", says Jean-Marie Charon, a French media analyst. "The problem is that France is in no position to establish itself on the international market at the moment." FOREIGN VIEWERS. This project may come as news to foreigners, but the idea has been debated in France for almost two decades. The government finally gave the go-ahead on Sept. 30, following the publication of a parliamentary report by senior official Bernard Brochand -- and a big push from French President Jacques Chirac, who campaigned for a French world-news channel during his reelection campaign in 2002. The diplomatic confrontation between France and the U.S. over the war in Iraq also gave the project new urgency. Now comes the hard part. The channel must clearly define its target audience. To start with, its programs will not be broadcast in France, even though they'll be financed with taxpayers' money. That's because TF1, the private TV network that will run CFII in conjunction with state broadcaster France Televisions, doesn't want the new channel to steal viewers from its existing cable channel, LCI. So only viewers in the rest of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East will be able to watch. America and Asia will be added, possibly next year. Only one problem, says Charon: "The parliamentary mission seems to think that there's an audience abroad, but they haven't measured the extent of this market." NO MONEY MACHINE. While enthusiastic about the concept, the government has been miserly with the budget. CFII will have just $82 million a year to work with -- a tiny fraction of CNN's $1.2 billion budget. With that level of funding, points out Brad Adgate, senior vice-president at researcher Horizon Media, "it's unlikely that CFII will be up to the standards set by its competition." CFII plans to keep costs down by running the entire operation out of its Paris-based headquarters and not spending extra money on bureaus. Instead, the plan is use TF1 and France Television's journalists abroad for footage and reporting on international events. Even Brochand doesn't have any illusions of the network breaking even. "An international channel cannot be financially viable, but that isn't the point of the operation," he says. That worries some media watchers, who think the channel will be a bullhorn for the French government. With the state putting up 100% of financing, some fear that might threaten editorial independence. Brochand says CFII will have a board of directors that will appoint its own editor. TF1 and France Television will share editorial management. "DIFFICULT." Meanwhile, competition is getting even stiffer on the international broadcasting scene. CNN is talking about expanding its coverage to include French and Arabic translations of its reports, and Al-Jazeera wants to launch a French version for Arabic and Muslim audiences. Warns Adgate.: "This shows just how difficult it will be for CFII to get some kind of recognition." Is France worried about the tough job ahead of the upstart news channel? Non. Enough with Gallic bashing and "freedom fries," is the cry. Now, France will have its own voice to the world.  Trastour and Passariello are editorial assistants in the Paris bureau of BusinessWeek Edited by Douglas Harbrecht
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