ABSTRACT
Just recently, France has experienced some major changes in the amount and quality of audiovisual offerings. Besides the introduction of the videocassette recorder (VCR), several new and commercial TV stations have been added to what could be called a fairly restricted TV variety until the mid-1980s. The development of the new media technologies in France is somewhat paradoxical, however. On the one hand, cable and VCRs are not as widespread as in almost all other Western industrialized countries. On the other hand, France successfully introduced viewdata as a veritable “mass” medium and has played an innovative role in terms of establishing pay TV. Both “Minitel,” France’s viewdata system, and “Canal Plus,” the first pay TV channel, are examples for how the audience is able to redefine the nature of a mass medium. This chapter attempts to describe the changes both in the French media landscape and—although based on regrettably scarce figures—in the behavior of the audience.
