January 9, 2008 | posted by Michael Baxter in French economy |

It does seem a little curious that in France, the land where subsidies and state protection rule supreme, and where the populace often seem to think they live in the most civilized country on earth, there is no equivalent of the BBC.

But yesterday, its premier, Nicolas Sarkozy, announced plans to merge France 24 - a 24-hour news channel, with TV5Monde and Radio France Internationale, while its two main commercial channels will see an end to advertising.

The French government would then tax mobile phone operators and provide money to these companies, who in return will be required to offer more quailty programming.

Mr Sarkozy has described the move as a “policy of civilisation.”

The FT said the French government is particularly keen to look at how the BBC has provided cultural and linguistic influence for the UK.

The BBC is perhaps the single-biggest example of why state ownership does not necessarily mean “no good.” The BEEB remains a paragon of quality broadcasting - although some of the output is pretty ropy.

Yet the French move does seem to come with curious timing. In this burgeoning era of Internet TV, the BBC will have an ever-harder job justifying its licence fee, and has recently been coming under more and more criticism because of the unfair advantages other web site publishers say it has on the Internet.

Then again, the UK without the Today programme would be a sorry place. But we know what you are thinking; the UK would be a sad place without Investment and Business News too - and there’s no licence fee to pay for us, just the benevolent support of Defaqto.