TELEVISION IN FRANCE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25714, 28 January 1949, Page 4

TELEVISION IN FRANCE

LEAD CLAIMED IN RESEARCH MORE GOVERNMENT AID SOUGHT [From MacFEE KERR, Reuter Correspondent.] PARIS, December 31. French television engineers claim to have forged far ahead of all other countries in research but admit that they are hampered in the full development of their discoveries by lack of funds. An energetic movement is afoot, however, to put things right. France Television, an independent, non-political organisation of 20,000 television enthusiasts, radio-elec-tricians, television-set manufacturers and dealers, has submitted proposals to the Government which it hopes will put the television service on its feet Mr P. Servant, general secretary of the organisation, told me: "We have proposed to the Government that if it is unable to increase the financial credits to the television service of the National Wireless Service, a mixed non-profit making company called the National Company of Television should be formed." This company, he added, would have 500 representatives of the State and 500 representatives of television viewers, radio-electricians, television set makers and dealers. The company would be directed by a small council in which the non-Government representatives would have a voting majority of 51 per cent. "Our proposals have already been discussed by the French Upper House which has decided in favour of them,” Mr Servant said.

The plan is now to be submitted to the National Assembly, which has been urged by the organisation to "face its responsibilities and lift the television service out of its present deplorable situation.” At the headquarters of the television service, an official explained the position as follows: “On the credit side, the fact stands out that we have the best photographing equipment in the world. Thanks to the invention of the French expert, Henri de France, we have a television pickup tube, called the eriscope, which makes television pictures possible at over 1000 lines. The number of lines in the picture indicates its clarity and intensity. The more lines you have, the clearer is the picture. At present, we are transmitting pictures at 450 lines. Britain is producing at around 405 lines and America at 525 lines. "Next summer, however, if we get the necessary credits from the Government, we shall be transmitting at from 800 to 1000 lines. One of our difficulties is that we are unable to transmit for a daily period sufficiently long to induce people to buy television sets. Our daily transmission time is one and a half hours compared with about four hours in Britain and from three to eight hours in America. The money we are allocated from the Government is entirely inadequate for our needs. This year we got less than £30,000, compared with £500,000 allocated by the British Government for television.”

Emphasising that another handicap to television in France is the high cost of viewing sets, the official said: "In America, a television set can be bought by an -engineer with his month’s pay. In Britain, an engineer can have a set for a month and a half’s pay, but in France a set would cost an engineer his pay for four months.”-.

At present France has only one television station—the Eiffel Tower. Plans are, however, ready for the construction of two relay stations, one at Lille and another at Lyons, and for nine new television studios in Paris.