Last lap for France Ô

Sunday evening August 23, after 22 years of existence, France Ô has ceased to broadcast permanently.

The public service channel of the France Télévision group devoted mainly to overseas territories no longer broadcasts on TNT despite the dissatisfaction of viewers; it will now be visible digitally. Ironically, or coincidence, the date chosen by the government to stop broadcasting corresponds to the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

France Ô, French generalist channel of the public service was born in 2005, succeeding RFO Sat, itself created in 1998. The programs of the channel are based on cultural diversity and France of Overseas, making discover the secrets and the beauty of the territories in the Metropolis. It also offers numerous programs, reports or retransmissions of concerts devoted to the African continent and its population.

Broadcast in its infancy on cable and satellite, it gained national access to TNT in 2010

1 year ago, in July 2019, France Télévisions signed a « visibility pact » aimed at « ensuring the long-term presence of overseas territories at the center of the public audiovisual supply, with quantified objectives. The government by Edouard Philippe announced the elimination of the France Ô channel in 2020 as part of savings estimated at 190 million euros, imposed on public broadcasting by 2022. Indeed, audiences too low (0, 8% in 2016 then 0.6% in 2017) unable to meet the cost of broadcasting, the fateful closing date of August 9 was postponed to August 23, unlike the channel intended for children, which benefited in July from  » a one-year reprieve (until the summer of 2021). The former Minister of Culture, Franck Riester even spoke to the President of France Télévisions for a maintenance of the 2 channels, asking her to propose a schedule of programs After Roselyne Bachelot was nominated for culture in the government of Jean Caste x, the Minister confirmed the disappearance of France Ô: « On France Ô, I think the question has been resolved because finally we had arrived at a kind of confinement of the Overseas in the audiovisual public service and the Overseas -mer must participate in the whole of the audio-visual one, she declared. She also insisted on the role of France 4 during confinement thanks to educational programs for all levels.

This decision should strengthen the overseas public media (the Overseas network) and the launch in June by France Televisions of an enriched digital portal dedicated to Overseas Territories, called « Outre-mer la 1ère ». significant visibility of French overseas territories in the programs with a strong audience of France Télévisions channels

Before its closure, many supporters were heard, including a column published in Liberation on July 27 and signed by 125 personalities, including Lilian Thuram, Marius Trésor and Audrey Pulvar; an online petition # SauvonsFranceÔ initialed by more than 100,000 people, a senatorial report from April 2019 on the « representativeness and visibility of overseas territories in the public audiovisual sector » which advocated maintaining France Ô.

While he was a candidate in 2017, Emmanuel Macron had promised during the meeting of the overseas associations, « France Ô will be maintained, I reassure you. There will be no suppression of France Ô. It has a program and a justification full and complete  »

The last intervention noticed is that of Babette de Rozières, who demanded in a press release on August 22 the creation of an overseas observatory in the public audiovisual sector which « would formulate recommendations for a stronger visibility » of overseas in « human resources, faces on the air and editorial content ».

About The Author

VERONIQUE YANG

See author's posts