French International News Channel Cleared to Go by EC. “Russia Today” Set to Go, Too.

Michael Hedges June 13, 2005

Governments looking to spin television news to their liking are setting up satellite channels. And they are avoiding their own international broadcasting agencies. Go To Follow Up & Comments

Russia is moving along in its planned “Russia Today TV” (RTTV) English language television new channel, announced publicly June 1st by state news agency RIA Novosti. The release said the channel will reflect Russia’s viewpoint on important global events and “inform the foreign audience about the variety of aspects of life in Russia.” Those close to the project refer to it as “Russia’s BBC.” Distribution for the 24 hour channel was described – without details - as covering Russia, the former Soviet republics, Europe, the US and parts of Asia.

One report of the project said prominent Russian journalists and presenters were tested in focus groups with English speaking potential viewers earlier this year. They failed and RTTV is recruiting in the UK. Margarita Simonyan, a 26 year old reporter for RTR Channel 2, was appointed editor-in-chief. Simonyan, quoted by the Moscow Times, said the start up budget from state funds is $30 million. She also said the channel would be independent from official Russia.

“We wanted to have a team of people who are younger than 30 years old,” said RIA Novosti managing director Svetlana Mironyuk at the press conference publicizing RTTV. “We’re starting from scratch. We want a new kind of television.”

At the same news conference, Simonyan explained that the channel will report “world news and distinguished by our Russian approach to this news.” RIA Novosti is coordinating project planning with Russian president Vladimir Putin’s media advisor Mikhail Lesin and press secretary Alexei Gromov. Pravda suggested the launch might coincide with President Putin’s scheduled September address to the United Nations. In recent years President Putin’s “approach” to Russian television has been to bring it under state control.

“Everybody understands that the channel will have heavy censorship,” said Yuri Rovensky, also quoted in Pravda. Rovensky is general director of RBC Information Systems, owner of TV channel RBC.

Addressing the “P” word, Mironyuk said “It is almost impossible to impose your own point of view among other opinions because the information space is too huge.”

CNN a la française

French President Jacques Chirac’s dream of balancing CNN and BBC World with the French point of view moved closer last week (June 7) when EC Competition Commissioner Neelie Kros ruled the project, which involves state aid, “…could nevertheless be authorized as a project financing a service of general economic interest.”

The French government is financing with €30 million the start up of Chaine Française Internationale d’Information (CFII) through public television France Television and private network TF1.  French President Chirac and former Prime Minister Raffarin started pushing for the new network in 2003, concurrent with the outbreak of the Iraq war. The EC decision clears one problem. The next is a final agreement between the two main partners, who must agree on a chairman and a budget. The network could begin broadcasting as early as the summer of 2006.

The commission said the joint venture does not conflict with EC state aid rules designed to restrict public funding of ventures that might distort competition. The news channel will, according to the most recent description, broadcast primarily in French, with a smattering of English and Arabic. It will be distributed by satellite, though not in France. Most observers agree that CFII will always require state subsidies as potential ad revenues will be modest.

Unfounded, it turns out, was the fear that the recent French “non” on the European constitution would be punished by a rejection by the Competition Commission. “This withdrawal (from the European constitution) risks a very bad blow to CFII,” said former Radio France International director Hervé Bourges speaking to a television conference in Belgrade May 31st. Bourges is currently president of the International Union of Francophone Press. He is one of several candidates for CFII’s chairmanship.

Setting a fire-wall of independence between funding and production may prove a fatal political liability for many government funded international broadcasters. The reality check is that governments want to control the message.  Inflexibility – perceived or real – on the part of journalists and producers has caused message-managers to create for themselves new platforms. The US government set up the Al-Hurrah television channel within the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) but outside of VOA.

Moving to satellite TV instead of the conventional wisdom of internet ubiquity also proves that modern message-managers are not content with “the promise” of “new media.” They want their message on-the-air, in the living rooms (or hotel suites) and right now.

And competition is heating up. Next spring al-Jazerra International – the English version – with hit the airwaves.

ftm Follow Up & Comments

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From Russia Today With Love… - December 10, 2005

Offering news of Russia to the world, the government funded English-language “Russia Today” channel took to the air at 1600 Moscow time Saturday.

The opening news program led with a story about HIV contaminated blood supplies in southern Russia, according to Reuters. The news format follows conventional rules; hard news followed by features in English spoken with British, American and Russian accents. And there are promos and graphics.

The channel is operated by state-owned RIA Novosti news agency.

“I think the people who work here have done a heroic job,” said editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, in an agency release.

Anchored in Moscow studios, Russia Today opened bureaus in Washington DC, London, Paris and Jerusalem.

The channel is offered on NTV Plus to Europe, North America, Asia and Africa.

CFII “Will be Born” – October 3, 2005

French Transport Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres announced, according to AFP, that the Chaîne Française d'Information Internationale (CFII) – often called CNN a la Française – will, indeed, get off the ground in 2006 and French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin will make a decision “very soon” about the channels’ future.

The decision in question, of course, is about control of the project. Designed originally as a joint project of public broadcaster France Télévisions and private network TF1 CFII has become a political football, too hot for some and too cool (read: not enough money) for others. France Télévisions Director Patrick de Carolis claims CFII as “100% public” and wants the channel seen inside France. TF1 entered the venture so long as CFII did not become a French market competitor.

The French government increased to €65 million the 2006 project budget, to which €30 million unspent in 2005 will be added.

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