Dead Air in August?

'Au contraire', say the French:

PARIS, Oct 31, 2006 (AFP) - A round-the-clock international news channel France is to launch in December will challenge the 'Anglo-Saxon' views spread by market leaders BBC and CNN by relying on 'French values', the network's chief said Tuesday.

France 24, as the network is called, will start broadcasting in English and French on the Internet on December 6 and then via satellite two days later, its chairman and chief executive, Alain de Pouzilhac, told Le Figaro newspaper.

Like its British and US rivals, it is homing in on "opinion leaders" around the world by dishing up a diet of news, features and discussion.

But those viewers, Pouzilhac claimed, have become increasingly "sceptical of the world vision offered by the Anglo-Saxons like BBC World and CNN International."

Instead, he asserted, they "are looking for contradictory opinions — which is what France 24 is proposing by relying on French values."

He did not define what those values were in the interview, beyond saying that the channel would highlight "diversity (and)... confrontation, without forgetting the culture and French art of living."