Proposed French international news station CFII is looking to increase its annual budget by ˆ2 million to ˆ10 million. The broadcaster intends to use the extra cash in order to launch a dedicated English language channel. Management of the state financed channel, to be jointly run by TF1 and France Televisions, is currently in talks with government officials.
CFII is proposing a French language channel and a second channel that would be 75% in English with the remaining 25% in French. A third channel in the Arabic language could launch as early as summer 2007 to be followed by a Spanish language channel between 2008 and 2010. Meanwhile, the launch date for the English language Al Jazeera International has slipped again due to technical considerations. An announcement is expected in the next few weeks.
