French language television and radio are fairly easily accessible in the UK as long as you have the right equipment. Realistically speaking, you are unlikely to need them before taking the GCSE. However, once you embark upon an AS or A2 course in French, they will become essential tools which you will want to use on an almost daily basis.
Unless you have specialist receiving equipment, there are only two ways in which you can gain access to French language broadcasts. The first is through Sky TV which has two channels with which you need to become familiar if you are working towards AS or A Level.
TV5, whose website and programme listings are here, broadcasts programmes from around the French-speaking world. You will find an interesting mix of news broadcasts, feature films (some of the with subtitles in French), quiz shows, soap operas, sport and so on.
Euronews is a dedicated TV news channel which broadcasts short bulletins and magazine items in four European languages simultaneously. To receive the French soundtrack, you need to follow these instructions:
The useful thing about Euronews is that it repeats the same bulletins throughout the day and its reports are always very short. It also has a website here where you can view streaming video of most of its programming. The short news items in written French on the site are often transcripts of the video soundtrack : very useful for listening comprehension practice.
For the AS or A Level linguist, a few minutes spent listening to a French radio or TV station should become a daily routine. Better still, have it on it the background as you do other things. It doesn't matter that you do not understand everything you hear. Much language learning is subconscious and by letting the sound of French wash over you, even if you are not concentrating on it, you are absorbing much more than you realise. It will not be long before you begin to notice an improvement in your comprehension skills, your vocabulary, your accent and your intonation. This is, after all, how you learned your mother tongue as a baby. You just listened.
A useful trick when listening to the radio or TV is to wait until you hear a whole phrase or sentence that you understand and (when no-one is listening) repeat it back at the radio, trying to imitate perfectly the "sound bite" that you have just heard. You may feel a bit embarrassed at first but, over time, the effect on your pronunciation and intonation should be considerable. Remember that there is a mark in both the AS and A2 oral exams for the quality of your pronunciation. The sooner you start getting rid of those anglicised vowel sounds the better you'll do in the summer.
But the most compelling reason, from your point of view, for making this a daily discipline is that, at AS and A2, you are going to be assessed on your knowledge of French society as well as on your ability to use the language. You will therefore need to become familiar with as many aspects of French life as possible. A daily dose of radio or TV is a fairly painless way of complementing your reading of the French press and the contents of your textbooks. You may even find you start to enjoy the music!
TV5
Euronews
Streaming Video
Radio France
Europe 1
Radio Online 1
Radio Online 2
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The other source of French television and film in the UK is, of course, in the form of streaming video over the internet. If you have a broadband connection and a reasonably new computer, you can access all sorts of things, from trailers in French for the latest cinema blockbusters to music videos produced by the students at Paris university. However, the network at school is not yet equipped to receive video over the internet. For the time being, if you want to see what's out there, you'll have to do it at home. We've dedicated a page to subject, which you'll find here.
If you are one of the many visitors from outside King Edward's who come to this page looking for information about French TV and Radio, it may be that you want to receive the full range of European TV channels in your home, school or college. The only supplier we are aware of is Satalogue, based in Derby, UK. If you come across others, please would you let us know so that we can list them here?
There is no shortage of French radio stations broadcasting on the internet and most of the worthwhile ones are available at Radio France's website here. If you don't want to be chained to your computer while you listen and you have a Long Wave radio, you can pick up two of the main radio stations, France Inter (see the Radio France website for listings) and Europe 1 (website here, audio available). Radio reception is reasonably good, even in Birmingham, but Long Wave radio receivers are getting harder to find. The frequencies are:
France Inter : 162
Europe 1 : 184
Of course, there are many other stations broadcasting in French around the world, from local radio stations in France to national stations in French-speaking Africa. Many of them are available online. If you want to explore the further, visit one of these sites:
Mike's Radio World,
Commfm.com,
Great Yarmouth Radio Club
Broadcast-Live.com.