French Newspapers, Radio, TV
In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the French media were
restricted by the government. However, it evolved rapidly
and nowadays; the print media are publishing its material
with the liberty under the rules of the French Constitution.
In France, currently, there is no trend of print media as
much and people are rather interested in broadcasting and
internet. The history shows that in the period of 1939-45,
the newspapers were widely used, but when the 2nd World War
came to an end, there was a sale of 6 million newspapers by
28 press companies collectively. Later in 1950s, the number
of readers became half and its decline started.
In fact, the emergence of the electronic media has a greater
impact on the falling popularity of the newspapers, however,
the local and territorial newspapers have no effect on their
sale and still Ouest-France is being sold two times more than
national newspapers. According to an estimate made in 2011,
the most famous newspapers are Le Figaro, Le Monde, La Croix,
France-Soir, etc. The circulation record of Le Figaro is round
about 332120, Le Monde is 322872 and La Croix is more than
105300.
AFP (Agence France Presse) is a news agency gaining popularity
all over the world and its earnings are very high. The Ministry
of Foreign Affairs supports RFI (Radio France International).
French radio stations and television networks were under the
authority of the government in the periods of 1950 to 1970.
Now, there are several radio stations in France. The most
commonly listened are BFM, Europe 1, Fun Radio, Radio France,
France Info, FIP, RTL, Skyrock, etc. These radio stations
are broadcasting a large variety of business news, entertainment
programs, educational and informational documentaries as well.
The major public television networks are France 2, France
3, France 5 and privately owned TV channels are TF1, M6, Canal+,
AB1, NRJ 12, etc. There are also some television channels
that are particularly telecasting music programs such as MCM,
MTV France, W9, etc. Besides, there are some news channels
that are telecasting latest updates from time to time and
work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, e.g. LCI, BFM TV, etc.
La Chaine Parlementaire is the television network based on
the governmental programs while TV5 broadcasts the programs
on the national level with the support of other TV channels.
Bouygues group is running its services publicly and has succeeded
in getting the highest traffic.
NIC France has registered 150 companies to provide internet
and French Telecom has founded IAP in 1996 with the name of
Wanadoo. The government has a main role in
the rapid development of the internet access in France.