French TV

[London Lite]

In other news, looks like there's plans being discussed to maybe move the fairly popular but often controversial Touche pas à mon poste from C8 to Canal+ (I guess during the unencrypted early evening window). Presumably to try to help the flagging main channel, but probably weakening C8 which has built itself up in the last few years. https://www.programme-tv.net/news/tv/274...pmp-video/

There's been some questions raised in Belgium about whether if that happens, it might mean that Belgians would no longer be able to watch the programme. C8 is available there, but not Canal+ France. The old Canal+ Belgium became Be TV, which did used to show the unencrypted stuff from the French Canal+ but doesn't nowadays.

The amount of controversy Cyril Hanouna has had and he still sticks on that show. Even Camille Combal sensibly moved to TF1 which has been the making of him by leaving that show.

There was also a recent issue where a contributor to Touche pas à mon poste went up to kiss a female contibutor without warning, which could be seen as sexism and sexual harassment.

However, what would a switch serve? It's basically hours of early evening padding on C8 before the prime time schedule starts at 9pm. It may give a boost to Canal+, but C8 would probably left with repeats of other shows. Maybe they could fill it with repeats of Gym Direct which is currently on at 6am?

[Medianext.MX]

In other news, looks like there's plans being discussed to maybe move the fairly popular but often controversial Touche pas à mon poste from C8 to Canal+ (I guess during the unencrypted early evening window). Presumably to try to help the flagging main channel, but probably weakening C8 which has built itself up in the last few years. https://www.programme-tv.net/news/tv/274...pmp-video/

There's been some questions raised in Belgium about whether if that happens, it might mean that Belgians would no longer be able to watch the programme. C8 is available there, but not Canal+ France. The old Canal+ Belgium became Be TV, which did used to show the unencrypted stuff from the French Canal+ but doesn't nowadays.

The amount of controversy Cyril Hanouna has had and he still sticks on that show. Even Camille Combal sensibly moved to TF1 which has been the making of him by leaving that show.

There was also a recent issue where a contributor to Touche pas à mon poste went up to kiss a female contibutor without warning, which could be seen as sexism and sexual harassment.

However, what would a switch serve? It's basically hours of early evening padding on C8 before the prime time schedule starts at 9pm. It may give a boost to Canal+, but C8 would probably left with repeats of other shows. Maybe they could fill it with repeats of Gym Direct which is currently on at 6am?

Indeed, the show is very controversial and generates a lot of divisive buzz on social media and the press. Speaking of moving the show to Canal+, it would give them indeed a boost to its very weak early evening window. Since the cancellation of Le Grand Journal, Le Petit Journal and Les Guignols after their ill-fated revamps, none of the shows that have replaced them has been a success: L'Info du Vrai has been retooled many times without capturing the needed audience (dividing the show into specific tranches, adding a studio audience and a entertainment-focused tranche, multiple rebroadcasts on CNEWS) and the attempt to strip Mouloud Achour's talk show Clique to five nights a week made the worst viewing figures in the early evening window for Canal+ since its inception, causing it to return to its moderately successful Sunday lunchtime slot. It could be the last-ditch solution to attract the audience back to that unencrypted window.

But, indeed, C8 could be left with hours of early evening padding, and its schedule is now much more competitive with the other general entertainment channels, specially after poaching former TF1 and France Télévisions personalities (William Leymergie, Benjamin Castaldi, Carole Rousseau, Stéphane Thebaut, Patrick Sébastien) to front popular shows. Even if it is still done in the cheap, and most of the programme schedule is made of Hanouna's H2O-produced shows, it looks like the channel is looking to expand the scope of its programming. It is certainly a long way from the inception of the channel as Direct 8.

[william]

Not the most exciting news, but the video player on the france.tv website has been upgraded: you can now live rewind by up to 4 hours, and there are buttons to go to the start of the current émission, or to jump back to live. It tells you how far behind you are too (to the nearest minute, anyway), and is overall a nicer implementation than iPlayer (and indeed YouTube).

I might be imagining it, but the picture also seems a bit sharper and the behaviour of the subtitles isn't quite so crazy, at least when using the rewind function (though I'd certainly not say they were "fixed").

[Roger Darthwell]

It's just been announced that the Culturebox TV channel which has occupied the channel once used by France O since last year is to lose it and instead become a programming block broadcast every evening on France 4.....that's until August this year when France 4 is scheduled to close down permanently. And to me it makes no sense whatsoever https://www.capital.fr/economie-politiqu...ut-1400471

[ConorM98]

It's just been announced that the Culturebox TV channel which has occupied the channel once used by France O since last year is to lose it and instead become a programming block broadcast every evening on France 4.....that's until August this year when France 4 is scheduled to close down permanently. And to me it makes no sense whatsoever https://www.capital.fr/economie-politiqu...ut-1400471

Honestly they should keep France 4 and convert it into a culture/young people mixed channel.

[London Lite]

It's just been announced that the Culturebox TV channel which has occupied the channel once used by France O since last year is to lose it and instead become a programming block broadcast every evening on France 4.....that's until August this year when France 4 is scheduled to close down permanently. And to me it makes no sense whatsoever https://www.capital.fr/economie-politiqu...ut-1400471

It allows France Télévisions to say that they're continuing with Culturebox, even if it's sharing with France 4 until August and allows Franceinfo and France 4 to revert to their previous configurations on the DTT version of TNT by allowing both channels to broadcast in HD again. Culturebox has meant that those two channels have had to reduce to SD.

Culturebox closes at the end of the month as a linear channel and starts as a France 4 strand on May 1.

[Roger Darthwell]

It's just been announced that the Culturebox TV channel which has occupied the channel once used by France O since last year is to lose it and instead become a programming block broadcast every evening on France 4.....that's until August this year when France 4 is scheduled to close down permanently. And to me it makes no sense whatsoever https://www.capital.fr/economie-politiqu...ut-1400471

It allows France Télévisions to say that they're continuing with Culturebox, even if it's sharing with France 4 until August and allows Franceinfo and France 4 to revert to their previous configurations on the DTT version of TNT by allowing both channels to broadcast in HD again. Culturebox has meant that those two channels have had to reduce to SD.

Culturebox closes at the end of the month as a linear channel and starts as a France 4 strand on May 1.

In this case this is a stroke of genius, even though I expected Culturebox to go on France 5 instead of France 4. Given that France 5 is the channel mainly devoted to culture and the arts

[ConorM98]

It's just been announced that the Culturebox TV channel which has occupied the channel once used by France O since last year is to lose it and instead become a programming block broadcast every evening on France 4.....that's until August this year when France 4 is scheduled to close down permanently. And to me it makes no sense whatsoever https://www.capital.fr/economie-politiqu...ut-1400471

It allows France Télévisions to say that they're continuing with Culturebox, even if it's sharing with France 4 until August and allows Franceinfo and France 4 to revert to their previous configurations on the DTT version of TNT by allowing both channels to broadcast in HD again. Culturebox has meant that those two channels have had to reduce to SD.

Culturebox closes at the end of the month as a linear channel and starts as a France 4 strand on May 1.

In this case this is a stroke of genius, even though I expected Culturebox to go on France 5 instead of France 4. Given that France 5 is the channel mainly devoted to culture and the arts

Actually France 5 is more documentaries, younger children's shows in the morning and chat shows/highbrow shows

[London Lite]

If and when France 4 closes, there's still the capacity there to allow Culturebox to return as a full time channel.

[Roger Darthwell]

Something weird on France 3 Sat today, as every Tuesday they are broadcasting Ensemble c'est mieux, which is the weekly regional talk show, however instead of airing the programme edition for Paris-Ile de France, the edition for Nouvelle Aquitaine was aired instead. Even more baffling after the programme finished a France 3 regional ident appeared which clearly stated France 3 Paris-Ile de France! What happened? Did they air the wrong region on the national feed?

[London Lite]

Something weird on France 3 Sat today, as every Tuesday they are broadcasting Ensemble c'est mieux, which is the weekly regional talk show, however instead of airing the programme edition for Paris-Ile de France, the edition for Nouvelle Aquitaine was aired instead. Even more baffling after the programme finished a France 3 regional ident appeared which clearly stated France 3 Paris-Ile de France! What happened? Did they air the wrong region on the national feed?

I'd speculate that Paris IDF didn't go out, so F3 Paris IDF and F3 Sat had a line feed from Nouvelle-Aquitaine played out via the Paris playout gallery, which meant F3 Sat got the IDF ident at the end of the programme.

[Roger Darthwell]

Something weird on France 3 Sat today, as every Tuesday they are broadcasting Ensemble c'est mieux, which is the weekly regional talk show, however instead of airing the programme edition for Paris-Ile de France, the edition for Nouvelle Aquitaine was aired instead. Even more baffling after the programme finished a France 3 regional ident appeared which clearly stated France 3 Paris-Ile de France! What happened? Did they air the wrong region on the national feed?

I'd speculate that Paris IDF didn't go out, so F3 Paris IDF and F3 Sat had a line feed from Nouvelle-Aquitaine played out via the Paris playout gallery, which meant F3 Sat got the IDF ident at the end of the programme.

Thank you for answering but I have to say, this is the first time I have ever seen something like this, I wonder if something similar happened over here

[London Lite]

Something weird on France 3 Sat today, as every Tuesday they are broadcasting Ensemble c'est mieux, which is the weekly regional talk show, however instead of airing the programme edition for Paris-Ile de France, the edition for Nouvelle Aquitaine was aired instead. Even more baffling after the programme finished a France 3 regional ident appeared which clearly stated France 3 Paris-Ile de France! What happened? Did they air the wrong region on the national feed?

I'd speculate that Paris IDF didn't go out, so F3 Paris IDF and F3 Sat had a line feed from Nouvelle-Aquitaine played out via the Paris playout gallery, which meant F3 Sat got the IDF ident at the end of the programme.

Thank you for answering but I have to say, this is the first time I have ever seen something like this, I wonder if something similar happened over here

Not on BBC One HD England which is the closest to F3 Sat. The only regional show they air is the Sunday morning politics show which alternates between London, North West, Yorks and Midlands.

[London Lite]

The French news channels are in holiday mode currently, with Franceinfo in their third week of part-time rolling news. However this week in addition to 6h30:8h30 and 23h being normal, the 20h-23h strand is also as normal. The F2 bulletins have had normal presenters throughout.

Yet it's still staggering that holiday mode for the other three news channels is changing presenters while Franceinfo persists with 15 min bulletins on the hour and filler for 45 mins except for breaking news when you may be lucky and get a whole 60 mins of news!

[London Lite]

Not the most exciting news, but the video player on the france.tv website has been upgraded: you can now live rewind by up to 4 hours, and there are buttons to go to the start of the current émission, or to jump back to live. It tells you how far behind you are too (to the nearest minute, anyway), and is overall a nicer implementation than iPlayer (and indeed YouTube).

I might be imagining it, but the picture also seems a bit sharper and the behaviour of the subtitles isn't quite so crazy, at least when using the rewind function (though I'd certainly not say they were "fixed").

Apologies for not seeing this before now, France.tv is now streaming up to 720p instead of 1024x576. 1080p would be a big ask, but they have 1080p on Salto.

6play really needs to be improved too, it's still streaming substandard SD.