France 24, RFI management a “worldwide project”

Pascale Paoli-Lebailly | 20-09-2012

Marie-Christine Saragosse, chosen to head the Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France, the holding group running France 24 and RFI, is insisting that AEF exceeds its national remit and is instead “a worldwide project with a distinctive signature”.

The current Managing Director of TV5Monde made her assertion to French TV regulator CSA and disclosed her ambitions for the holding, after months of in-house turmoil.

Notably, she made the claim France 24 garners significant audiences in Maghreb and Africa even though it has not expanded worldwide yet while RFI’s Arab speaking affiliate Monte Carlo Doualiya is not active in Maghreb.

Besides distribution, and the necessity for both networks to be carried on classical media devices and on new platforms and social networks, Marie-Christine Saragosse insisted that editorial content was king. “We need to offer the good content in the good language, on the good platform and with the good publicity and marketing strategy to promote it,” she added.

About AEF’s funding, the Saragosse revealed her intention to renegotiate with the French State regarding the holding’s Objectives and Means contract , all the more as she forecasts the evaluation of commercial revenues is “not realistic”.