France 2 to reduce grid cost by €30 million

Pascale Paoli-Lebailly | 04-12-2012

French pubcaster France 2 will have to cut its grid cost by €30 million in 2013, deputy MD Philippe Vilamitjana announced at a press conference today.

Such an unprecedented move is due to the fact France Télévisions state allocation will be reduced by €85 million to produce a total budget of €2.45 billion.

Without sport and news spending, France 2's grid cost is currently €514 million. The channel's audience share stood at 15% during 2012.

Vilamitjana indicated that programming cuts would initially come from the extensive use of TV stock, from re-runs, and from price renegotiations with French TV producers.

France 2 also highlighted that it is going to halt the production of scripted reality shows - light fiction based on news items recreated and played out by comedians.

This genre is actually very controversial and has been judged by the French Minister of Communication as not even having a place on the public TV service.