The French Radio Landscape: The Impact of Radio Policy in an Area Defined by the Antagonistic Forces of Commercialization and Cultural Protection

In: European journal of communication, Band 11, Heft 3, S. 393-415

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the characteristics of French radio resulting from the processes in the development of radio policy. These processes are in part diametrically opposed to one another. On the one hand, the radio landscape is currently characterized by strong movements towards concentration and commercialization. They have been caused, interalia, by a relaxation of the concentration limits which were provided for in the 1994 radio law. On the other hand, protectionist radio policy attempts, by means of the introduction of quotas for chansons— established in the same law — to compensate for what France regards as the `harmful' consequences of these developments. In the meantime the media inspectorate Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) has developed its own points of view which do not always tally with those of radio policy.