Toute l’actualité, touts le temps

Never mind the brouhaha over a dying newspaper industry. Certain sectors of Old Media are actually gaining ground (er, I mean air). More and more broadcasters are showing a commitment to a format that is all news, all the time, all around the world. Yesterday saw the launch, to mixed reviews, of France 24 (vingt-quatre), a government-backed 24-hour news channel that’s putting a Gallic spin on the day’s events. Most of the stories will be broadcast and streamed online in French and English, and there are plans to ramp up Arabic-language content as well.  

The trend is happening in smaller countries too. When I was in Bangkok last month, I spoke with Tom Mintier, a CNN veteran who had been hired by Thailand’s media giant UBC to launch a 24-hour news channel. Mintier thought that there was a valuable untapped market made up of viewers who wanted to watch news in their native tongue. Too bad UBCTV’s news programming wasn’t already on the airwaves during the coup. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t have mattered. Mintier plans to avoid political coverage in favor of business and sports. If you ask me, that’s an incomplete definition of “news.”

At any rate, France 24 and UBCTV may make some headway in their respective niche markets. But neither is likely to make a dent in the overwhelming global dominance of the BBC and CNN International. They simply don’t have the resources, reach, or potential audiences.