Скачать или смотреть UPDATE Gay television channel launches in France

(26 Oct 2004)

1. Pan crowd waiting outside Palais Chaillot for Pink TV launch
2. Various people entering and having photo taken
3. SOUNDBITE (French) Amelie Mauresmo, Tennis player:
"I think essentially society is becoming more and more tolerant. It's a good sign. A few years ago we wouldn't have been able to see a TV station like Pink TV. Now it will be interesting to see what the programmes will be."
4. Various of Pink TV launch
5. Video messages from Elton John, Bjork and Kylie Minogue
6. Countdown and Pink TV launch
7. Set-up of Pascal Houzelot, Pink TV President (on the right)
8. SOUNDBITE: (French) Pascal Houzelot, Pink TV President:
"I am excited and enthusiastic. This is a big moment, an historic moment. It's the first time that a gay-friendly station has been launched."
9. Screen with Pink TV logo, changes to slide with former French President Francois Mitterrand holding hands with former German leader Helmut Kohl
10. Acrobats on trampoline in with Eiffel Tower in the background


LAUNCH OF FIRST GAY TV CHANNEL IN FRANCE

The launch of France's first gay television channel, Pink TV, has been touted as a big step for television and a new era for homosexuality in the largely Roman Catholic country.

Guests gathered at the Palais Chaillot in Paris on Monday for the launch of the new station.

Celebrities included tennis star, Amelie Mauresmo, with video messages from pop stars Elton John, Bjork and Kylie Minogue.

French newspapers have heralded the launch of Pink TV for days, with Paris tabloid Le Parisien carrying "The Gay Tide" as a banner headline on Monday over a photo of a rainbow flag.

A pair of pink stilettos graced the front page of this weekend's Liberation newspaper, which endorsed the channel in an editorial entitled "Good One".

The editorial, like Pink's founders, says the channel's arrival shows the time is ripe for such a venture in France, which is at times surprisingly conservative and still divided over homosexuality.

The channel is "a giant leap for television, a small step in high heels," presenter Eric Gueho says in a promotional clip.

Available on cable and satellite television, the channel is largely financed by France's three main commercial networks.

Aside from daily doses of Wonder Woman and Japanese "manga" cartoons, Pink plans to broadcast movies, documentaries, music programmes, debates on issues like gay parenthood and homophobia.

There'll be drama series including "Queer as Folk", and X-rated films four nights a week after midnight.

That Pink TV aims to be an eye-opener is apparent in one of its advertisements showing a famous 1984 photograph of then French President Francois Mitterrand holding hands with ex-German leader Helmut Kohl.

"A relationship is about more than just sex", says the advertisement. The image comes from a historic ceremony of Franco-German reconciliation to commemorate World War I at the site of the bloody battle of Verdun.

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