(Blog Post) In an age of decreasing media market regulation at least in the U.S., France is increasing it. Starting a year ago, almost immediately after Sarkozy's election, the French have banned ads on the major networks (channels 2, 3, 4, and 5) after 8:00 PM. The plan is for a full ban on these stations at all hours by 2011. Full Story »
Posted by Julian Friedland
Informative report on France's decision last year to ban advertising from their public TV networks. A year later, officials claim that this gamble is paying off, resulting in more quality programming due to less commercial pressure from sponsors. This short blog post gives a quick update on this under-reported topic, but only points to a short news brief from L'Humanite to support its findings. Would love to read more definitive studies to about the social impact of this important decision.
Leave it to the French to buck the populist trends of modern media. It took some guts for Sarkozy to ban advertising after 8pm on all French TV networks, but it appears that was just what the doctor ordered ;o)
Definitely interesting news I had not read about previously. Gives a very clear idea of the key facts at hand without editorializing. Would be interesting to get a reaction from French TV producers, as well as from consumer goods industries. Advertising is, after all, how people learn about products to buy.
Could be more in depth but provides the essence of a surprisingly important story that has had no coverage in the Anglo-American media.
Retrieving Comments
