NO TV Commercials on french TV from 6pm to 6am !

[dlrp_bopazot]

From today in French Public TV all Commercials are now banned and all movies and stuff wont be cut by commercial break hum not like in the US .

What do you think about this new law ?

[€uroMeinke]

When do you go to the bathroom?

[Andrew]

When do you go to the bathroom?
That's what TiVo is for.

[€uroMeinke]

That's what TiVo is for.

You mean they've integrated high-tech toilet technology into that device as well?

[Not Afraid]

I might watch more TV if I lived in France. Except, I wouldn't understand a thing that was being said. ;)

[dlrp_bopazot]

I might watch more TV if I lived in France. Except, I wouldn't understand a thing that was being said. ;)

Thats ok now with the new TVs you can have the subtitles in english .

[dlrp_bopazot]

When do you go to the bathroom?

I'll make sure to go to the bathroom before to watch Harry Potter or even Titanic .

[RStar]

Of course I would love to have TV with no comercials at all, but then that would mean the public would have to cover the entire cost and the quality would likely be reduced (with the exception of big budget films that are eventually run on TV). And the viewership is so low from 11:00pm to 6:00 am anyway that it doesn't matter a great deal.

But loosing prime time 6-10pm must hurt them!

How's the feedback from stations?

I must admit, from what I saw of TV in my hotel rooms I wasn't real impressed compared to American TV. Are there "pay channels" like HBO or Showtime there? I would assume they have no commercials anyway.

[lashbear]

Sounds like a dream come true !!

[Betty]

I'm curious what they mean by "public" tv. If that's like our public tv is - that is - KCET etc, it's already with very few commercials and they aren't the regular sort.

[Strangler Lewis]

Pas de pub, pas des ideés.

Or so the billboards said.

I don't agree with RStar. Last summer I got to watch an episode of Walker: Texas Ranger dubbed into an Italian. Also an episode of The Persuaders.

Okay, I agree with RStar.

[Stan4dSteph]

I had FREE when I lived in France, and it was much cheaper than the equivalent cable+phone+internet service in the US, plus you could get channels a la carte. I also had unlimited international long distance, so I could call my sister in NZ or my parents in the US for no additional charges.

As far as no ads, I do wonder how it will affect things, but most of the ads were in between shows anyway, so it doesn't interrupt the flow as much as on US TV.

Oh, and there's a lot more porn on the French cable.

[Moonliner]

A quick google shows that:

France appears to have a mix of state run and commercial stations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_stations_in_France), making it somewhat akin to the US system. Although the state run stations do broadcast shows like ER and Without a Trace.

So how will they fill the time when they air a show like ER that's only 40min long after you remove the commercials?

[Alex]

Questions that immediately come to mind:

1. If any of the channels are privately run companies why is it any business of the government to tell them when they can or can't run commercials?

2. Are these broadcast channels only or do they include non-broadcast networks too?

3. If commercials are so evil why are only the gainfully employed protected from them but housewives and the unemployed aren't?

4. It sounds like a stupid law as much as I would prefer commercial free.

[RStar]

So how will they fill the time when they air a show like ER that's only 40min long after you remove the commercials?

Good point. Perhaps they won't worry so much about one hour time slots? Or fill some of it with news and weather?

Granted while I was there I rarely watched durring peak hours, and the hotels only had about 6 or 8 chanells (I assume there more available at a price), but the only US show I saw was an old Happy Days dubbed in French. the Fonze spoke like Inspector Clouseau. It was a blast (for about 15 minutes).

[Moonliner]

Questions that immediately come to mind:

1. If any of the channels are privately run companies why is it any business of the government to tell them when they can or can't run commercials?

2. Are these broadcast channels only or do they include non-broadcast networks too?

3. If commercials are so evil why are only the gainfully employed protected from them but housewives and the unemployed aren't?

4. It sounds like a stupid law as much as I would prefer commercial free.

1&2. The commercial ban only pertains to the four state run stations.

3. Yea France! It's about bloody time a Goverment stopped worring about "saving the Children" and did something for working adults.

4. Aggreed.

[Moonliner]

Good point. Perhaps they won't worry so much about one hour time slots? Or fill some of it with news and weather?


I don't read French, but here is what's on France-2 this evening:

18h10 Cote et match du jour
18h15 Dakar 2009 : sur la route des Andes
18h50 CD'aujourd'hui
18h55 Service maximum
19h55 Météo 2
20h00 Journal
20h30 Partir...
20h34 Météo 2
20h35 Rendez-vous en terre inconnue
22h15 Tirage du Loto
22h25 Complément d'enquête

[Alex]

Well, if they're just state run channels then I don't have an opinion any longer. They can do what they want with them.

Does France have TV licenses like in the UK?

[Stan4dSteph]

Well, if they're just state run channels then I don't have an opinion any longer. They can do what they want with them.

Does France have TV licenses like in the UK?If you mean that you have to pay a yearly fee if you own a TV, then yes France does have that.

[dlrp_bopazot]

here's an interesting article about this

http://www.france24.com/en/20090105-france-television-public-end-advertising-prime-time-news

it wont affect our TV Bills but other private Channels will see they taxes increased .

Now the French public TV employees were on strike today but it wont change because our President would like to see all TV commercials banned by 2010 .
Then the French Public TV will broadcast their programs with NO Commercials at all .

[Andrew]

Oh, and there's a lot more porn on the French cable.

Commercials in porn is never a good thing.

[alphabassettgrrl]

I'd love to have commercial-free tv. It's so nice when we download them via on-demand, or by bit-torrent, with the commercials cut out. Second-best is TiVo, fastforwarding through them.

I suspect fewer people have tv's if they have to pay a fee to have it; I suspect this would lead to having lives and going to a pub or some such to watch certain shows. This sounds highly superior to the current state of affairs here.

[RStar]

Commercials in porn is never a good thing.

Unless it for the Fleshlight.....