French TV

France Info is also available live on YouTube for the world to see! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwNZKfBLAsc&feature=emb_title

Wonderful interlacing artifacts on that stream!

This is the one place you can get subtitles too (although the stream itself isn't as reliable as YouTube and you can't rewind).

It's been like that since launch and yet it hasn't been sorted.

Luckily I'm able to watch the 1080p stream on Molotov or MyCanal which is broadcast quality.

Franceinfo is back in holiday mode again. The 14h hour was 17 minutes news, with 43 minutes of filler.

Salto, the OTT/SVOD streaming service from TF1, France Télévisions and M6 has finally launched, two years after it was announced.

Unlike Molotov which has a €3.99 price point for up to four devices, it's €6.99 for one device, €9.99 for two and €12.99 for four devices, but the price for one device is cheaper for accessing TF1 and M6's pay tv content such as Paris Premiere and TV Breizh.

https://www.screendaily.com/french-platform-salto-launches-into-crowded-streaming-market/5154213.article

A look at the Android TV interface is here.

Salto has been added to the Digital Bitrate website, where it shows the highest resolution for the live streams is 960x540 at 25fps. This is for all of the channels, including the pay tv ones.

https://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.php?lang=en&liste=2&live=405

Molotov offers Full HD on the majority of channels and 4K HDR for a couple of channels on the basic 4€ package in comparison.

Le 23h on Franceinfo seemed to be all over the place today. Because of the PSB commitments of taking on the former Soir 3 bulletin, they attempted to mix rolling news with the terrorist attack in Vienna between the booked guests including an author and analysis of tomorrow's election.

For the first time, there was a second presenter providing updates from the desk, while Claire Giroud who was covering for Patricia Loison was replaced by a male presenter for the final 15 mins and then handed over to the international focused France 24 while the other news channels in France stayed on-air past midnight.

One positive of this US Election coverage has been the pooling of resources by French networks - notably the public service broadcasters (Franceinfo TV, RTS, RTBF and Radio France) coming together with France 24 and TV5MONDE to cover the night live from the Franceinfo atrium. Patricia Loison was excellent, kicking things off with Le 23h. Martin Baumer was not good IMO and failed to 'share' the presentation each hour with the alternating co-hosts. There was an edition of Les Informés, which really was a live version of the Washington D'Ici podcast which I thought worked tremendously, and could be France's answer to Brexitcast.

BFMTV, LCI (and even CNEWS I suppose) have all put in decent efforts and had a decent number of lives and coverage late into the night each day. BFMTV interestingly used the Première Édition teams to lead the coverage (the weekend team, then the early team, then the main team) and this has seemed to pay off as they were France's most-watched channel 4.30am-noon on 4/11: https://www.ozap.com/actu/audiences-boostee-par-les-elections-us-la-matinale-de-bfmtv-plus-forte-que-telematin/598592

The main story in Francophone media this week though is this investigation into the behaviour of renowned journalist Darius Rochebin during his time as lead anchor at RTS. If true, these allegations are absolutely awful and I think could end his career rather abruptly: https://www.letemps.ch/suisse/rts-darius-rochebin-loi-silence?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article_traffic

Have to agree that the collaboration of France's PSB's worked really well on Tuesday night and was surreal to see Franceinfo on overnight. TV5MONDE was a straight simulcast of France 2's feed without all the lower thirds.

After a three week break, the themed news bulletins are back during daytime on Franceinfo after once again being replaced by Le Journal.

So recently, the Canal+ Group has started rolling out a new visual identity to reflect the digital age and its growth into a global company. It features a stunning new moving logo with Norbert Gilbert, the guy who did the music for the 2009 rebrand, returning to give us a lovely bit of orchestral music with the familiar xylophone and opera vocals that represented Canal+'s brand in previous rebrands.
The new music will be used in different forms such as idents or radio ads for the Canal+ satellite service.
The 1-minute logo itself has over 2,000 LED lights forming the Canal+ logo and lighting up, the logo itself appears with a + shaped hole on the right side with lights inside, slowly revealing the Canal+ logo with the letters flashing in time with the music.

We dunno if the channel itself or its sister channels will receive the new look but according to a programme called "Le Plus" it seems likely they'll adopt this in 2021, so fingers crossed. A lovely little tease into the next evolution of Canal+'s quirky and innovative branding.

Really amazing logo animation imo