No news is bad news
So far, hypothetical web has only produced round-the-clock bickering
So far, the hypothetical web has only produced round-the-clock bickering between rival broadcasters and politicos determined to shape it to their own liking.
Ironically, the officially approved project of a joint venture between leading adcaster TF1 and pubcaster France Televisions recently got the greenlight from Brussels.
The French state has assigned it a modest e30 million startup budget. But last week, less than a month after taking up his new job, France Televisions' new topper Patrick de Carolis submitted a new set of plans.
They incorporate public service news broadcasters such as Radio France Intl., which was controversially excluded from the TF1/France Televisions project.
Gaul's Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, appointed in June, is keen to have the web broadcast in France as well as abroad. But that concept goes against the interests of TF1, since the channel would rival the adcaster's own Gallic news web LCI.
"Substantially changing the project at this point would put it back another two years," a TF1 source complains.
