As Prince Albert II had suggested, on 1isSeptember 2025, Monaco Info and TV Monaco will disappear, to leave room for the creation of a new television channel. Monaco will leave the TV5 Monde network and relaunch with a completely different project.
Since Prince Albert II spoke out, things have accelerated. “We are too small to have two different television channels. It is not possible to compete on the same subjects. » In November 2024, Prince Albert delivered to Monaco-Morning his desire to see the “television” file in the principality reviewed in depth. “The prospect of being in the TV5 Monde network required us to create a new independent entity, but I think we could have gone about it differently. If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t do it like that.”he said, revealing his incomprehension in the management of TV Monaco. Launched on the TV5 Monde network on 1isSeptember 2023, TV Monaco displayed real ambition, aiming for international visibility. We remember that the accession of the Principality of Monaco to TV5 Monde was made official by the signing of the TV5 charter by Laurent Anselmi, who was then still Minister of External Relations and Cooperation, on Thursday December 9, 2021. At the end of 2021, Monaco acquired 5.3% of the capital of TV5 Monde for 4.2 million euros, making the principality the sixth country member.
Launched on the TV5 Monde network on 1isSeptember 2023, TV Monaco displayed real ambition, aiming for international visibility
Created on January 2, 1984, TV5 Monde is a simplified joint stock company (SAS), whose largest shareholder remains France Télévisions, with 46.4%, ahead of France Médias Monde (11.9%). To justify this choice, the complementarity between TV Monaco and Monaco Info was then displayed. “For me, there is no question of a merger, nor of the disappearance of Monaco Info, on the contrary, it has its role. There may be a reorientation of certain things, because we will work differently. At TV Monaco, we also have other missions. We will be more internationally oriented than Monaco Info, estimated Salim Zeghdar in May 2023, when he was general director of TV Monaco, during an interview with Monaco Hebdo. […] If a merger is to take place, Monaco Info will have to lose its status as a state channel, and that is not possible. It doesn’t make sense. »
Read also | Salim Zeghdar: “The TVMonaco editorial team will not refrain from any subject”
At the beginning of October 2024, after a year of existence, a press conference organized by TV Monaco provided some figures, but none on the audiences achieved in Monaco. Frédéric Cauderlier, editor-in-chief of TVMonaco, indicated that the channel would rank third in Europe for the most watched television news on this network, which reaches 420 million households and 80 million weekly viewers.
« Rapprochement »
But how can we read this data, when this audience is achieved through the resumption of its television news on an international general channel which also broadcasts many other programs? In any case, Prince Albert was clear: “I asked the Minister of State to study a merger between TV Monaco and Monaco Info. This seems logical to me, I don’t want competition that goes in all directions. » Comment ? “We have to manage to put everyone in the same “house”. With different programs, different missions, but within the same entity. » From October 2023, the director of communications and director of Monaco Info, Geneviève Berti, spoke at length to Monaco Hebdo : “A merger would not bother me, because the fact that we are not addressing the same audience would preserve a unity, or at least a personality within a group […]. Obviously, in any change, there are always concessions, compromises, things to accept… but that has other benefits. And for Monaco Info, this would, among other things, have the benefit of giving us resources that we do not have. »
Read also | Geneviève Berti — Director of Monaco Info : “A merger with TVMonaco would not bother me”
The disappearance of TV Monaco and Monaco Info, launched in 1995, is recorded. A new television channel, probably with a new name, will replace them
“Synergy”
On the side of the elected representatives of the National Council, during the discussions around the 2024 amending budget, on October 10, 2024, they estimated that one year after its launch, despite “a very substantial budget”TV Monaco struggled to find “a clear editorial line and its audience”. In its initial 2024 budget, the government planned to devote 24 million euros to TVMonaco’s budget. An amount that is too high, in the eyes of certain elected officials. This had caused incomprehension and many questions from the president of the finance and national economy committee of the National Council, Franck Julien, on December 19, 2023: “This budget line of 24 million euros does not correspond to what was presented to us in May last year. We were told about 15 million, then a correction to 17.6 million. We do not have sufficient information to have an opinion on the question, but certain points question us, such as this line at 1.147 million for “miscellaneous and unforeseen” elements. Why already plan for unforeseen events when we are only at the initial budget? It is easier to plan for unforeseen events in the amending budget. Questions also arise about the 8.5 million euros spent on purchasing programs. This sum seems quite enormous to me. » Franck Julien also highlighted the 4 million euros in allocations from TV5 Monde, which welcomes TVMonaco within its network. These 4 million are in addition to the 24 million euros included in the initial 2024 budget. “In total, TVMonaco’s budget is more than 1% of state expenditure, and four times higher than that of the National Council. This is far from negligible, added Franck Julien. We start by presenting ourselves with something reasonable, and we move towards things that are much less reasonable. » Still through the voice of Franck Julien, on October 10, 2024, elected officials therefore pleaded for a rapprochement between TV Monaco and Monaco Info: “Such a synergy could not only reinforce the coherence of the messages broadcast, but also allow better use of available resources”.
Read also | TVMonaco: elected officials plead for a rapprochement with Monaco Info
The objective will always be to make people talk about Monaco outside the borders of the principality, even if it is outside the framework of TV5 Monde
Geneviève Berti, “prefigurator”
As planned, on the evening of December 16, 2024, around 11:30 p.m., the study of the chapter dedicated to the direction of communications allowed elected officials to return to the TV Monaco file. It was the vice-president of the National Council, Jean-Louis Grinda, who asked the question to the Minister of State, Didier Guillaume: “We need an independent press and television in the principality. The asset management plan (PGA) states that for Monaco Info, the objective in 2025 will be to continue, and sustain, its transformation in terms of content, even formats, initiated for almost three years. It’s a speech that Alain Peyrefitte could have written (1925-1999) [ministre de l’information du 28 novembre 1962 au 8 janvier 1966 — NDLR], when he was talking about the French radio and television office (ORTF). Which clearly proves that this cannot continue. » The case having been heard, Didier Guillaume was able to provide some clarifications to the national advisors: “There will be a single efficient, professional channel. [D’ici le 1er septembre 2025 — NDLR], we will have left TV5 Monde, or we will be in the process of leaving TV5 Monde, I don’t know if that can be done in the middle or at the end of the year. » What seems certain is that the disappearance of TV Monaco and Monaco Info, launched in 1995, has been recorded. A new television channel, undoubtedly with a new name, will replace them, indicated the Minister of State: « Au 1isSeptember 2025, we will press the button, and there will be a new independent public television. It will not depend on the director of communications, it will not depend on the government. It will have a board of directors, a strategic advice of professionals, a contract of objectives and means to set the orientations, a budget… We will also have the possibility of having an advertising agency, to have additional income. It will be public television, but it will not be television financed 100% by the public. » The objective will always be to make people talk about Monaco outside the borders of the principality, even if it is outside the framework of TV5 Monde.
“We will also have the possibility of having an advertising agency, to have additional income. It will be public television, but it will not be television financed 100% by the public”
Didier Guillaume. Minister of State
Consequences
For this, and to reach young people who are abandoning television for the Internet, it is planned to focus more on social networks. Didier Guillaume appointed Geneviève Berti as “prefigurative” of this future television channel: “She will have her mission letter in January 2025. She will be there to make proposals, to define what the new Monaco television channel will be. » The merger with TV5 Monde and the international influence highlighted at the start of this project will have lasted four years, from 2021 to 2025, and it should therefore end this year, according to the Minister of State. During this period, TV Monaco programs benefited from broadcasting on the TV5 Monde network, a free digital platform launched in September 2020. The exit of TV5 Monde should represent a saving of around 5 million per year for the finances of the Monegasque State. It remains to be seen what consequences the merger of Monaco Info and TV Monaco will have, particularly on the staff of these two television channels. Until June 2025, the teams will be screened to identify the collective who will be at the helm of this future television, on 1isSeptember 2025, indicated the Minister of State, Didier Guillaume. If we imagine that the number of employees should be reduced, in particular because of duplication, should we fear layoffs? What will be the role of the current director of TV Monaco, Nathalie Biancolli? For the moment, no information is circulating on this subject, but the concern is there. From now on, it is a project starting from scratch which will be launched in September 2025. If the audience figures for TV Monaco have not been revealed, national advisors doubted the international visibility that this channel should provide. Will the new channel be some sort of Monaco Info “premium” which will benefit from more resources, and in particular from a control room and a state-of-the-art set? How will this channel succeed in spreading abroad? Is it a completely different project and new content that will be deployed? The coming months will be rich in lessons.
