Tune in, check out
advertising in the country, are to be allowed to advertise on TV
for the first time - but not until 2007.
The European Union might be a single market when it comes to the transfer of goods and services, but there are still huge differences in the way in which each Member State regulates certain industries.
Retail is one such industry, with the liberal opening hours enjoyed by consumers in the UK a total anathema to shoppers in France, for example. But the various EU members are slowly converging, with both Spain and Germany, for example, removing most of the restrictions on store opening hours.
While France as yet appears to have no such plans, it has at least relaxed one of the more draconian regulations affecting the retail industry - a ban on TV advertising.
While British TV viewers, for example, are bombarded with ads for companies such as Tesco and Sainsbury, the French counterparts of these stores have until now been forced to use other media - radio and magazines in particular - to tout their wares.
But a decision this week by the French government - following lengthy discussions with the European Commission, which is keen to see greater harmony across the EU - will mean that the likes of Carrefour, Auchan, Intermarché and Casino will finally be allowed to advertise their services on TV - although not until 2007.
The government had originally hoped to see retail adverts from 2006, but the French broadcast regulator preferred 2008 - hence the compromise date of 2007. Advertising on satellite and cable TV channels will be allowed as from 2004.
While retailers will undoubtedly benefit from the greater reach that TV will bring them, radio stations and other media will undoubtedly suffer. The number of hypermarket or supermarket adverts in any one hour on French radio is huge, and the retail sector currently spends 24.9 per cent of its total advertising budget of €1.6 billion on promoting its business over the airwaves alone, according to Les Echos.
But it is magazines which account for the lion's share of the advertising budget - €670 million in 2002 - and a not insignificant portion of this expenditure is likely to be transferred to TV advertising once the market is liberalised.
