Just weeks after the December launch of international French news channel France 24 the Commission for Foreign Affairs has concluded that France needs to organise it’s international broadcasting more efficiently. The commission started an investigation after “France’s answer to BBC and CNN” took to the air late last year. The main recommendation: the fledgling news channel should be integrated with international radio broadcaster Radio France International (RFI).
At the moment international broadcasting from the country is too fragmented, the organisation complicated and budgets are randomly allocated. The various international broadcasters should complement each other rather than duplicate and be organised under one umbrella, France Television.
At the moment the total budget of 300 million euro is unevenly divided between four broadcasters: RFI gets allocated 131 million euro; TV5 Monde 66 million; France 24 80 million and Canal France International (CFI) 20 million.
