French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made good on his promise to shake up the country’s media industry. Starting on January 1 next year prime-time advertising on public television will be phased out, with the lost revenues to be replaced by taxes collected from internet, mobile phone and commercial broadcasting companies, Sarkozy announced yesterday, reports Bloomberg via mocoNews.net.

"Internet and mobile operators will have to stump up a tax of 0.9 percent of sales—which could raise up to 380 million euros ($595 million), in support of the state-owned France Televisions, which controls the country’s four public channels. A further 80 million euros ($125 million) will come from taxes on commercial broadcasters."

Source: http://www.textually.org/