Television and radio

In 1989 the Socialist government formed the Supreme Audiovisual Council (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel; CSA) to supervise radio and television broadcasting. There are both public and private stations. Programs also have been broadcast and received via satellite since 1984, and cable broadcasting began in 1987.

Television has made a significant contribution to cultural life. There are three state-controlled television channels and more than 100 private ones. More than three-fourths of the population watch television an average of 22 hours per week. Programs are varied, with a number of quality discussions, interviews, and documentary reports, as well as a broad combination of quiz and variety shows and dramas. In the 1980s the literature program Apostrophes enjoyed immense success and had a direct effect on book sales, as did its successor Bouillon de culture. As elsewhere in Europe, however, there has been a tendency to show an increasing number of American films and programs, which is hedged by official efforts to promote French programming; as critics point out, it is less expensive to buy 10 episodes of an American television show than to produce an hour-long documentary. By the 1980s the arrival of the videocassette recorder had created new opportunities for home film viewing, which expanded at the turn of the century with the introduction of digital videodisc (DVD) players.

Although it has been largely eclipsed by television and video, radio still has cultural impact. Two agencies managed by Radio France—France Culture and France Musique—provide the bulk of the cultural programs, but they are often indifferently presented. Major stations such as France-Inter (public) or Europe No. 1 (private) have resorted increasingly to a mix of popular music, news items, quizzes, and talk shows. Smaller private stations cater to specialized interests—for example, Radio Notre Dame (religion) and Radio Classique (classical music). Popular music stations such as Fun Radio and Skyrock have grown rapidly. Since 1994, however, with the aim of protecting French culture, such stations have been obliged to dedicate 40 percent of their playlists to songs in French.

The press

The newspaper has a long history and a strong tradition in France. The French press, in the form of reviews and news sheets, has its origins in the early 17th century with Théophraste Renaudot’s La Gazette, which began in 1631. It was not for another 250 years, however, with the passage of an act in 1881 allowing greater freedoms, that the press began to expand significantly. At the beginning of World War II, Paris offered some 30 daily papers, many with national followings and most with a clear political affiliation. The number of newspapers (and periodicals as well) declined sharply after the war, in some cases for political reasons but in others as a result of takeovers, collaborative ventures, and competition from television. In 1944 the Paris-based Le Monde was founded, and it became the most informed and influential of modern French newspapers. Other influential and widely circulating Paris dailies include Le Figaro, Libération, and France-Soir. Among the smaller dailies are the Roman Catholic La Croix l’Événement and the communist L’Humanité. In the 1950s illustrated magazines began to proliferate (echoing a trend of the 1930s); some of these were popular magazines of general interest and some were directed at specific markets, such as Elle, Marie-Claire, and Vogue Paris for women and L’Express, Le Point, and Le Nouvel Observateur, which are political. Few, however, have enjoyed the popular success and wide distribution of the news-oriented Paris-Match. By the late 20th century, three specific factors characterized the French press: first, the expansion of the regional daily paper, with Ouest-France enjoying the largest circulation in the country; second, the growth of specialized magazine journalism; and third, the appearance since the early 1960s of free newspapers essentially for advertising purposes, which are distributed weekly in the millions.