CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera...and France 24?

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headquarters in New York and via Comcast (CMCSA) digital cable in Washington D.C.)

France 24's management stresses a more important goal than mere commercial success: providing a "third way" in today's polarized global news environment. "France is seen as a rebel country," says de Pouzilhac, who commissioned a 12-country study to determine how journalists, politicians, and business leaders worldwide perceived France.

More Crossover Competition

"We seek out contradictory opinions, and we know that the new opinion leaders have a great appetite for a different vision of the world," he says. On controversial stories such as Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he says, France 24 likely will carve out a middle ground between Al Jazeera and CNN.

In any case, the pressure for France 24 to offer a distinct vision just got greater. Al Jazeera and the BBC recently débuted channels in English and Arabic, respectively, weakening France 24's appeal as an outside alternative in the markets serving people who speak those languages (see BusinessWeek.com, 3/23/06, "Al Jazeera Meets American Resistance").

CNN also has a strong presence in the region, counting four bureaus in Africa and five in the Middle East, supported by an Arabic-language Web site (arabic.cnn.com).

Another Pair of Eyes

Together, CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera reach more than a half-billion people worldwide, according to data from the networks. With so many options available to TV viewers, France 24 will have to offer viewers images and information they can't find anywhere else—not just a different take on the same news, experts say.

"If [France 24] succeeds, it will succeed on the merits of its journalism," says Jack Doppelt, a professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a visiting professor this year at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. "Maybe having another set of cameras and another set of journalists out there in the world will produce new images that can influence diplomats." That may be what France's leaders are hoping for, but their dream is a long way from becoming a viable business.

Carlin is a reporter in BusinessWeek's Paris bureau.