France's Sarkozy wants to scrap advertising on public TV

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday proposed scrapping advertising on public television channels and imposing a levy on the advertising revenue of private television channels to help fund the shortfall.

"I want the requirements of public television to be modified in depth and to look into the possibility of completely scrapping advertising on public channels," Sarkozy told a news conference.

The public channels could thus be "funded by a tax on the increased advertising revenue of the private channels and an infinitesimal tax on the revenue of new communication means such as internet access or mobile phones," he added.

Shares in commercial television group TF1 gained over 10 percent and those of M6 nearly 7 percent after the comments.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)