Guide to French TV Channels {Interesting Read}

Expatica.com: Living in France ^ | March 1, 2003

[nwrep]

Guide to French TV channels

The French think they have the best TV in the world, just like every nation does - and like everyone else, they're wrong! There's the usual over-abundance of game, talk and variety shows - but in which other country could you find a prime-time programme on culture? This is a guide to the six national terrestrial channels.

TF1

This privately-run media is one of the two most popular channels (the other being state-run France 2), and fills up most of its programming with game shows (it bought the rights to Who wants to be a millionaire?) and varieties. Its sports coverage is amongst the best (it has the money!) and its news coverage, especially for breaking news, is generally wider than its rivals (main news bulletin at 8pm).

It produces a lot of prime-time fictional series, mostly cop series or the like, and, like France 2 and France 3, runs films (mostly French, or American dubbed into French) through the weekday evenings.

Owned by the Bouygues construction group, TF1 has become the devil incarnated for French intellectuals who resent its populist programming and sky-high salaried stars.

France 2

This is the state-run challenger to TF1 for top viewing figures, and as a result, much of its programme grill ressembles its competitor - with exceptions. There's much lofty talk amongst its management of offering a "public service", which generally sounds like an apology for the cultural slots, mostly after midnight, that it continues to run.

Later this year, its one prime-time culture programme, Friday night's Bouillon de Culture, which is a chat show with authors and their books, will lose its star presenter, Bernard Pivot, who has been making bitter public statements about his channel's dumbing-down. Whatever, over the past few years, France 2 has recently seriously dented and even overtaken TF1's top viewing slot.

The main 8pm news, which lasts 45 minutes, runs against that of TF1, and its news department offers some interesting current affairs programmes and regular debates on political issues.

An interesting programme for anyone trying to catch up with who's who in French showbiz, politics and scandal is the weekly Saturday night 'Tout le monde en parle' with the evergreen garçon provocateur of French TV, Thierry Ardisson.

France 3

This is France 2's little sister, a national channel based on a regional network of studios. It used to be the poor relation of sate-run TV, but has recently ploughed resources in to quality programming, especially current affairs. Its news has unique access to the vast coverage of its regional bureaux, and a regular weekday 7pm news programme offers a round-up of local news from around France.

It sometimes runs sub-titled foreign films, most of them in English, and TV series, including some classics, of a more high-brow content than the two major channels.

Canal Plus

Launched in the 1980s, Canal Plus was born to be different! It's a pay-channel, with a yearly subscription for a decoder box, and specialises in recent films (a vast number, repeated through the month and including Hollywood blockbusters in English) and a wide coverage of sports events. There's simply nothing like it for film-lovers and it is involved in co-production deals with many French cinema releases.

It created waves when it introduced a monthly screening of a pornographic film, which it continues to do.

It also runs documentaries, many of them non-French, and 'alternative' chat programmes.Its success has been enormous, and Canal Plus, owned by the huge Vivendi group, has spread its wings across Europe.

La Cinq/Arte

This is a Franco-German channel with programme input from both countries. It is most definitely not concerned with mass viewing figures but rather targets an 'intellectual' audience interested in sub-titled films or documentaries which sometimes last for several hours. It concentrates on educational issues during the afternoon.

That said, it provides a lot of interesting alternatives to the mainsteam French channels, and it is the only TV to regularly provide a whole evening's programming of films, debate and documentary based around one particular theme.

M6

This began as a music channel, aimed at a young audience, and mostly running pop-music clips. Since a shaky beginning, it has added US TV series and eventually built-up a serious and interesting offering of current affairs programmes which have claimed an honourable stake in 'must' viewing for news junkies.

Its slow but successful path from being a channel which nobody, including its media neighbours, took seriously into becoming a major player was concretised this year with its production of the French version of Big Brother, called Loft Story. The show has been so successful - and has caused one of the biggest controversies in the history of French television - that it has severely shaken the giant TF1 whose management has denounced this so-called "trash TV". Talk about the kettle calling the pot black!

[nwrep]

See what they have out there. This is apparently why they want a French Cable News channel...

[nwrep]

Ping

[Paraclete]

They forgot the channel that only does reruns of Jerry Lewis Telethons.

[general_re]

You know, I have a DSS (satellite) system, and I have more news channels on tap than the French have channels. So how come I'm supposed to be the provincial, uninformed, unsophisticated one?

"The Parisian travels but little, he knows no language but his own, reads no literature but his own..."

- Mark Twain

"We have no broad views. We concern ourselves only with the fireside, the club, and the asphalt. We rarely acquire other languages, and as a rule read no literature but our own."

- Emile Zola

[dfc62]

Those six channels are the terresital channels that you get without cable or satellite.

[x]

The French have fine radio.

Radio France

Radio France International

[dighton]

... bureaux ...

He's gone native........;-)

[Live free or die]

Vivendi is the group that bought the SciFi Channel. Less than a year later, Farscape, the best and most original show on TV was cancelled.

[pepsionice]

The state-run system is dismal. I spent 3 weeks deployed to France back in 1997 and found that the vast number of French simply don't watch that much TV. The brainy types spend a few hours on Sunday watching the politcal chat shows and then turn the TV off for the rest of the week. The kids just watch cartoons and music videos...and turn the TV off the rest of the time. My impression was that most folks want to sit around and chat...rather than watch the tube. That would be fine...but they tend to focus on problems and the talks lead to a never-ending story.

[battlegearboat]

Flavin...Klavaann!

[Happy2BMe]

Iraqi T.V. has cloned itself from their French mentors . .

A sampling follows . . .

MID-EAST TV GUIDE

SUNDAY:

8:00 - My 33 Sons

8:30 - Osama Knows Best 9:00 - I Dream of Mohammed

9:30 - Let's Mecca Deal 10:00 - The Kuwaiti Hillbillies

MONDAY:

8:00 - Husseinfeld

9:00 - Mad About Everything

9:30 - Monday Night Stoning

10:00 - Win Bin Laden's Money 10:30 - Allah McBeal

TUESDAY:

8:00 - Wheel of Terror

8:30 - The Price Is Right If Osama Says It's Right

9:00 - Children are Forbidden from Saying the Darndest Things

9:30 - Taliban's Wackiest Public Execution Bloopers

10:00 - Buffy the Yankee Slayer

WEDNESDAY:

8:00 - Beat the Press

8:30 - When Kurds Attack

9:00 - Two Guys, a Girl, and Pita Bread

9:30 - Just Shoot Everyone

10:00 - Veilwatch

THURSDAY:

8:00 - Fatima Loves Chachi

8:30 - M*U*S*T*A*S*H

9:00 - Veronica's Closet Full of Long, Black,Shapeless Dresses and Veils

9:30 - Married With 139 Children

10:00 - Eye for an Eye Witness News

FRIDAY:

8:00 - Judge Saddam

8:30 - Suddenly Sanctions

9:00 - Who Wants to Marry a Terrorist Millionaire?

9:30 - Cave and Garden Television

10:00 - No-Witness News

SATURDAY:

8:00 - Spongebob Squareturban

8:30 - Who's Koran Is It Anyway?

9:00 - Teletalibans

10:30 - Camel 54, Where Are You?

Spongebob Squareturban

Saturday - 8:00

[Erasmus]

You neglected to mention the hit daytime soaper: The Last Days of Our Lives.