France plans to stir up international broadcasters

PARIS (Reuters) - France must shake up its diverse collection of international broadcasters to compete with U.S. and British giants and newer Arabic cable television groups like Al Jazeera, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Monday.

The international dominance of cable stations like CNN or BBC World has long been an irritant to France, prompting former President Jacques Chirac to launch a French rival called France 24 last year.

But Kouchner, who returned from a visit to Iraq this month, said more still needed to be done to ensure that France's voice was heard in the world.

"During my visit to Baghdad I was able once again to observe the considerable influence of Arab, American and British stations," he said in a speech in Paris.

"Because we lack a powerful international French audiovisual presence, we're not heard sufficiently," he said.

France 24, jointly owned by France Television and commercial operator TF1, is dwarfed by its U.S. and British rivals and there has long been pressure for a merger with the other French international broadcasters, TV5 and Radio France Internationale.

"The fragmentation of our international audiovisual system, its lack of coherence, means and visibility merit a general reflection," he said.

"By the end of the year, together with the culture ministry, I would like to have completed a proposal for a structure regrouping the operators TV5, France 24 and RFI and mobilizing them for new objectives including a common Internet portal."