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191321Z Apr 06

UNCLAS PARIS 002578 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KIPR SCUL FR
SUBJECT:  CACOPHONY IN FRANCE'S FOREIGN TELEVISION POLICY 
 
REF: Paris 1856 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  France's foreign television policy, which plays a major 
role in the dissemination of French language and culture throughout 
the world, is going through a rocky patch.  After the shaky start of 
France's proposed international all-news television station CII 
(REFTEL), to broadcast mostly in English, it is now the turn of the 
GOF's preferred instrument for French-language television policy, 
TV5, to be in a quandary, following the recent resignation of its 
president and former Culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon. 
According to Aillagon, his resignation is designed to highlight the 
GOF's decision to treat France's international all-news network as 
the priority, at the expense of TV5, France's main foreign 
television instrument. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  The GOF currently injects some 314 million euros into its 
foreign television and radio networks annually.  A little under a 
third of that amount goes to TV5, hardly enough to meet its 
ambitious goal of broadcasting to 120 million French-speaking 
viewers around the world.  Despite its presence in 6,000 cable 
networks across the globe and its subsidiaries on all five 
continents, French observers concur with Aillagon that TV5 needs 
more funds to retain its French-language audience.  Furthermore, 
they claim that TV5 already has a news program capable of offering a 
genuine international vision in French.  Established in 1984, TV5 
emerged as a result of cooperation of French public-sector channels 
with its Swiss, Belgian and French-Canadian counterparts. 
¶3.  (SBU)  This latest episode reflects the GOF's persistent efforts 
over the past eight years to refocus France's foreign television 
strategy, in order to both spread "the good word in French" while 
increasing France's television exports, currently the world's fifth 
largest after the United States, Canada, Australia and the United 
Kingdom.  So far, however, confusion has prevailed.  TV5 has a new 
chairman (Francois Bonnemain, former Prime Minister Raffarin's 
Chief-of-Staff), but its budget continues to be controlled by the 
French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while that of the proposed 
international all-news network, CII, will be administered by the 
Prime Minister's office.  To be continued, undoubtedly. 
Stapleton