The strangest thing though is that the author of the highly-critical piece claims to be an assistant editor at France 24.

The conservative blogosphere is all over it.

I don’t know what to make of this.

But streaming video is already becoming an also-ran technology of of the Internet age. Although wonderful for those who want to sit down and watch the network from anywhere in the world- streaming video hardly takes advantge of two characterisitics which define Youtube’s success: video-on-demand and the ability to embed videos in blogs, personal webpages, myspace pages, etc.

To truly posper in the new era of social media, TV news networks must embrace the Youtube model by allowing their videos to be cut up and embedded all over the net.

Who wants to wait 20 minutes to hear the headline news? Who wants to watch a great news story once- and then never be able to share it with their friends, family, co-workers, and the public at large?

Slicing and sharing a news channel’s content is the future of news, which is why France 24 Watch welcomes the recent creation of an official France 24 Youtube page. Ultimatly, it would be wise to find a video partner that allows for advertising and the distibution of content from the France 24 website itself. But this is a good first step towards adapting to the future of media.

This enquete looks at the view of France from abroad, sepcifically the French presidental election.

74 percent of American respondants wanted France’s new president to improve US ties, but only 31 percent had a positive image of thier French allies, and 19 percent wanted her to surrender her seat on the UN Security Council.

Americans, however, were more supportive of European enlargement than the French or the British, with 27%, 20%, and 17% respectively responding favourably to the idea of addimg more members to the union.

Overall, general opnions of France were very favourable in contential Europe- 74% in Germany, 69% in Italy, and 63% in Spain and less favourable in Great Britian (43%) and the United States (31%).

Again, the poll is having a big echo in the media chambers. Even the conservative American news outlets have highlighted the poll- although they’ve chosen to focus on the negative image the French have of themselves.

The biggest complaint against France 24′s content has been that there have been few live reports by corespondents. In thier place the network usually ran stock footage with a voiceover.

No more. France 24 now averages 2 live linkups per 10 minute news segment.

Highlights:

-Most Europeans think Turkey’s entry in to the EU is inevitable.

-Most Europeans think that English will be the continent’s primary language by 2050.

-Europeans are incredibly optimistic about renewable energy.

-Europeans believe that Christianity will remain the majority religion of Europe in 2050.

The interesting bit is the speculation on what the upcoming French election will mean for France 24′s funding. The newschanel is President Chirac’s baby, and between Sarkozy on the right and Royal on the left, Chirac has no natural heir to his cultural hypernationalism  and the expenisve France 24 will have no gauranteed allies in the new government no matter what the outcome of the election.

Considering the current fiscal troubles of the French state and the absurdity of funding two international channels, something has to give.

The question is will France 24 survive?

The implication of the author is that France 24 has precious little time to prove its worth.