ABSTRACT
Compared with some other industrialized countries, such as the United States and Great Britain, France was slow to enter the television era. Though French television was officially established in 1935 and regular transmissions began after the Second World War, it was not until the late 1950s that a significant mass audience began to emerge. There were a variety of reasons for the relatively slow market take-up of television in postwar France.1 The low standard of living of many French people, the initial high cost of sets and the belief that television was a non-essential luxury item helped keep consumer demand down. At the same time, many intellectuals and opinion formers manifested a barely disguised contempt for the medium, which on the basis of the American experience they regarded as a vehicle for all that was worst in mass culture.2 On the supply side, the weakness of the French electronics industry delayed the production of sets. Most crucially of all, financial constraints within the state broadcasting services, which were still geared up primarily for radio broadcasts, meant that the transmission network and programme output of television were slow to expand and attract a large nationwide audience.3 As late as 1957 only five major urban areas could receive television programmes. The result was that during the 1950s the new medium failed to penetrate into many French households (see tables 4.1 and 4.2). Ownership of a set was confined to a select few, while many were introduced to television viewing in cafés and télé-clubs.4
