France 24 24 hour English news

[Clair]

[quote user="Logan"]Snag is old love that the channel is run by the French government [/quote]

cheap shot Logan... The Beeb, CNN or Fox are hardly independant... They all peddle whatever angle suits them best.

At least it's a different angle on the same news...

[Cat]

[quote user="Megan le Fey"]We are getting ".........technical fault.  Please try again later."[/quote]

Have you tried unplugging your Sky box for a few seconds?  That usually resets the problem, and will also force an update for the Sky program guide.  I'm getting the promo broadcast loud and clear on 515

[Logan]

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Logan"]Snag is old love that the channel is run by the French government [/quote]
cheap shot Logan... The Beeb, CNN or Fox are hardly independant... They all peddle whatever angle suits them best.
At least it's a different angle on the same news...
[/quote]

Cheap shot? No. I perhaps failed to explain my point sufficiently.

I entirely agree that these channels do what suits them best and that's usually reinforcing a status quo. Or in the case of News International the world according to R. Murdoch. The difference is France 24, as I understand it is directly funded by the French government. The employees are civil servants, editorial content is restricted by the governments own interests.  It is not an independent media. The other channels you mention are private companies funded by share holders and in the case of the BBC, licence payers. The BBC has a charter of independence and generally, in my opinion lives up to it as best it can. I have no faith in anything directly funded and thereby controlled by state interests. However we shall see. 

[Meg]

Might have to stop watching that looping film in a minute. [blink]

[Meg]

OOOHHHHHH now there is an actual countdown on screen............i tell you , I'm glued to it!!

[chris pp]

For all you people with television, is the version that you are watching the same as the one that I am watching streamed on my computer? I assume that it must be.

Chris

[Meg]

Well currently 5.10 to go!!

I am sooo excited!!!! (sorry boring day!)

[Clair]

[quote user="Logan"]... France 24, as I understand it is directly funded by the French government. The employees are civil servants, editorial content is restricted by the governments own interests.  It is not an independent media. [/quote]

As I understand it, France 24 is funded 50/50 by TF1 (private company) and France Télévisions (public holding).

The 130 or so journalists are not civil servants.

The PDG was formerly head of Havas (advertising group).

The channel is overseen by a board of trustees equally divided between TF1 and France Télévisions.

The board is headed by Patrick de Carolis (Head of France Télévisions).

Etienne Mougeotte (vice-president of TF1 for 18 years and former journalist) is his vice-president.

[Meg]

Fun seeing it start. Even though i waited all day!!!

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Jon"]Starts tonight at half past eight. Only one stream will be in English, the others will be in French. Arabic is planned for 2007.

France 24 sera lancée ce soir à 20H29

Very heavily state funded, but then so is the BBC. I await with interest.

[/quote]

Which bit of "the state" exactly is the TV licence fee,  Jon ?

If you listen to the continual moans from the government (any government) about the editorial policy of the corporation you would be in absolutely NO doubt that -whatever else it may be - the BBC ain't a state broadcaster !

p

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Gyn_Paul"][quote user="Jon"]Starts tonight at half past

eight. Only one stream will be in English, the others will be in

French. Arabic is planned for 2007.

France 24 sera lancée ce soir à 20H29

Very heavily state funded, but then so is the BBC. I await with interest.

[/quote]

Which bit of "the state" exactly is the TV licence fee,  Jon ?

If

you listen to the continual moans from the government (any government)

about the editorial policy of the corporation you would be in

absolutely NO doubt that -whatever else it may be - the BBC ain't a

state broadcaster !

p

[/quote]

I didn't say that the BBC was a state broadcaster.  I would say

that the last thing the BBC is is a state poodle. After all, it employs

John Humphrys. However, the licence fee is levied by an act of

Parliment and is a tax. I believe the corporation also receives a grant

that comes from the pot of general taxation. Ergo, the BBC is state funded. My point was that state funding is not necessarily the same as state control.

[Dick Smith]

It (France24) has a very Gallic look.  I quite like it. It is 4 degrees in Tashkent. I love the global village...

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Jon"][quote user="Gyn_Paul"][quote user="Jon"]Starts tonight at half past

eight. Only one stream will be in English, the others will be in

French. Arabic is planned for 2007.

France 24 sera lancée ce soir à 20H29

Very heavily state funded, but then so is the BBC. I await with interest.

[/quote]

Which bit of "the state" exactly is the TV licence fee,  Jon ?

If

you listen to the continual moans from the government (any government)

about the editorial policy of the corporation you would be in

absolutely NO doubt that -whatever else it may be - the BBC ain't a

state broadcaster !

p

[/quote]

I didn't say that the BBC was a state broadcaster.  I would say

that the last thing the BBC is is a state poodle. After all, it employs

John Humphrys. However, the licence fee is levied by an act of

Parliment and is a tax. I believe the corporation also receives a grant

that comes from the pot of general taxation. Ergo, the BBC is state funded. My point was that state funding is not necessarily the same as state control.

[/quote]

It is true the BBC receives a grant-in-aid from the F&CO, but this is totally ring-fenced and used entirely to fund the External Services. the Domestic services are funded by the licence fee.

The Licence fee is a tax ? -hmmm...  Only if you consider paying - say - your electricity bill a form of taxation.

p

[DOMY]

BENJAMIN SAID : " JC is finally acknowledging that if you want to get your message across you cannot expect to do that in French.

He'll be singing the La Marseillaise in English next ! "

-----------------------------------------------------------

Benjamin, don't be so arrogant with your english language !!!

Are you ready to learn and to speak chinese, if you want the rest of the world to know that Benjamin is existing ???

IT'S COMING SOON ...

[DOMY]

..

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Gyn_Paul"][quote user="Jon"][quote user="Gyn_Paul"][quote user="Jon"]Starts tonight at half past

eight. Only one stream will be in English, the others will be in

French. Arabic is planned for 2007.

France 24 sera lancée ce soir à 20H29

Very heavily state funded, but then so is the BBC. I await with interest.

[/quote]

Which bit of "the state" exactly is the TV licence fee,  Jon ?

If

you listen to the continual moans from the government (any government)

about the editorial policy of the corporation you would be in

absolutely NO doubt that -whatever else it may be - the BBC ain't a

state broadcaster !

p

[/quote]

I didn't say that the BBC was a state broadcaster.  I would say

that the last thing the BBC is is a state poodle. After all, it employs

John Humphrys. However, the licence fee is levied by an act of

Parliment and is a tax. I believe the corporation also receives a grant

that comes from the pot of general taxation. Ergo, the BBC is state funded. My point was that state funding is not necessarily the same as state control.

[/quote]

It

is true the BBC receives a grant-in-aid from the F&CO, but this is

totally ring-fenced and used entirely to fund the External Services.

the Domestic services are funded by the licence fee.

The Licence fee is a tax ? -hmmm...  Only if you consider paying - say - your electricity bill a form of taxation.

p

[/quote]

There is something of a difference, as I am sure you would agree. The

electricity bill is written by a private company in the UK these days.

The TV licence fee is collected by a state entity and paid to another.

If that is not a tax then what is?

[fulcrum]

[quote user="DOMY"]BENJAMIN SAID : " JC is finally acknowledging that if you want to get your message across you cannot expect to do that in French.

He'll be singing the La Marseillaise in English next ! "

-----------------------------------------------------------

Benjamin, don't be so arrogant with your english language !!!

Are you ready to learn and to speak chinese, if you want the rest of the world to know that Benjamin is existing ???

IT'S COMING SOON ...[/quote]

I think the problem for most of us from the UK is that we want to learn French because we are in France but realise, because of our previous travelling experience, that English is the most widely spoken language in terms of the number of countries that speak and understand it.

To give an example. I once had to go to Oman and install a Japanese point of Sale system. I had to meet a Japonese specialist to discuss the installation. I couldn't speak Japonese and only a few words of arabic. However, we were all able to communicate because of English. Even the Chinese, in the example you give, have a 24hour news channel in English.

I have in the past learnt reasonable conversational Greek and have tried to learn Arabic. Now I'm trying to learn French.

[powerdesal]

Benjamin,

Its not arrogance but plain fact. The international language happens to be English ( English-American). That makes it great for us English (British) people, but, realistically, its not our fault. Its the way it is.

We have, at the last count, some 55 different first languages amongst the employees and contractors at my work place. What is the common language - correct, its English. Theoretically it should be Arabic but how many non-Arabs know enough Arabic to get by, not many.

I personally deal with English, French, German, Arab, Indian, Romanian, Italian, Philipino, American, Dutch and Chinese engineers on a daily basis, with the best will in the World I cant be fluent in all those languages, never mind the regional variations.

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Jon"][quote user="Gyn_Paul"][quote user="Jon"][quote user="Gyn_Paul"][quote user="Jon"]Starts tonight at half past

eight. Only one stream will be in English, the others will be in

French. Arabic is planned for 2007.

France 24 sera lancée ce soir à 20H29

Very heavily state funded, but then so is the BBC. I await with interest.

[/quote]

Which bit of "the state" exactly is the TV licence fee,  Jon ?

If

you listen to the continual moans from the government (any government)

about the editorial policy of the corporation you would be in

absolutely NO doubt that -whatever else it may be - the BBC ain't a

state broadcaster !

p

[/quote]

I didn't say that the BBC was a state broadcaster.  I would say

that the last thing the BBC is is a state poodle. After all, it employs

John Humphrys. However, the licence fee is levied by an act of

Parliment and is a tax. I believe the corporation also receives a grant

that comes from the pot of general taxation. Ergo, the BBC is state funded. My point was that state funding is not necessarily the same as state control.

[/quote]

It

is true the BBC receives a grant-in-aid from the F&CO, but this is

totally ring-fenced and used entirely to fund the External Services.

the Domestic services are funded by the licence fee.

The Licence fee is a tax ? -hmmm...  Only if you consider paying - say - your electricity bill a form of taxation.

p

[/quote]

There is something of a difference, as I am sure you would agree. The

electricity bill is written by a private company in the UK these days.

The TV licence fee is collected by a state entity and paid to another.

If that is not a tax then what is?

[/quote]

Well, I think it's more like a fee paid to receive a service.

p

[Gyn_Paul]

Anyway......

France 24 is on Sky channel 515 (the last of the bunch of news channels) comprising (at the moment) 10 minute world  news bulletins followed by weather, and then a 15 minuteish  pull together of longer, magazine-type items.

All in English, and - surprisingly - no French domestic news (well, not in the hour I watched) **

The usual start-up problems: odd sound mixes, wrong video formats etc, but I'm sure it will get better.

Sad there's no French news; I wanted to find out about last night's storm. as we had no electricity until gone 13.30, so missed the TF1 1300 Journal.

** Realise we watched (well, half-watched while making late, post power-cut lunch) the same 00 - 30 twice. In fact the 30 - 00 part of the hour appears to be in French!

[Clair]

[quote user="Gyn_Paul"]I wanted to find out about last might's storm. as we had no electricity until gone 13.30, so missed the TF1 1300 Journal.[/quote]

There's not going to be French news on France 24 as it's all about showing international news from a French perspective.

Anyway, this is what Le Figaro online is saying about the weather:

[quote]Un homme a été tué

et plusieurs autres passants blessés par la chute d'un panneau

publicitaire dans la capitale. On déplore d'autres blessés, notamment

dans le Rhône, alors que plus de 150.000 foyers doivent se débrouiller

sans électricité, dont 40.000 en Vendée et 80.000 dans la région Centre.[/quote]

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Gyn_Paul"]I wanted to find out about last might's storm. as we had no electricity until gone 13.30, so missed the TF1 1300 Journal.[/quote]

There's not going to be French news on France 24 as it's all about showing international news from a French perspective.

Anyway, this is what Le Figaro online is saying about the weather:

[quote]Un homme a été tué

et plusieurs autres passants blessés par la chute d'un panneau

publicitaire dans la capitale. On déplore d'autres blessés, notamment

dans le Rhône, alors que plus de 150.000 foyers doivent se débrouiller

sans électricité, dont 40.000 en Vendée et 80.000 dans la région Centre.[/quote]

[/quote]

Thank you Clair.

Quatre-vingt mille et un inclu chez nous !

p

[Logan]

And for those of you without much French:-

A man was killed and several others passing injured by the fall of an advertising panel in the capital.  One other badly hurt, notably in the Rhône, while more than 150.000 homes must manage without electricity, of which 40.000 in Vendée and 80.000 in the region Centers.   

First viewing of France 24 looks dismal to me.

I wonder how much of the share equity in TF1 belongs to the government? Mmm...........

[Ron Avery]

Cannot be worse than BBC News 24 that picks up on every report by every looney organisation in the UK and presents it as fact    ......... a study of 25 thin people in Huddersfield found that obesity in the North of England was a myth. 

[Benjamin]

DOMY

The Mandarin language is spoken almost exclusively in one, albeit very large, country in the World so bothering to learn it unless I was either going to live or work there would be a pretty useless waste of my tme. English however is spoken throughout the World.

There was no intention of arrogance in stating, as others have done, that this is a simple, provable fact. If you want to communicate with and get your message across to the rest of the World you do it in English.