Fury in France as Sarkozy bans adverts from state TV

One of Nicolas Sarkozy's most visible, and most controversial, attempts to transform the French way of life will take effect from 8pm tonight. Advertising will vanish from prime-time on all state-owned television channels as part of an attempt by the President to create, in his own words, a public television service to "rival the quality of the BBC".

The abolition of prime-time commercials – part of a much bigger revolution in the French broadcast landscape – has provoked strikes by television journalists and a torrent of insults and allegations which transcend the usual political boundaries of right and left.

M. Sarkozy's critics allege that his true motive is to transfer part of the shrinking pot of advertising revenue to the privately-owned television channels. They also claim another part of his reform – the direct nomination of the boss of state-owned France Télévisions by the Elysée Palace – is a reversion to the bad, and dreary, old days of politically controlled French television.

Journalists at France 3 will go on strike today and their colleagues at France 2 will stop work tomorrow, in protest against what they see as an attempt to undermine the quality and independence of news gathering on the state-owned channels.

M. Sarkozy's attempt to shake-up French broadcasting – first announced a year ago – has been energetically resisted by centre-left and centre parties. A long parliamentary filibuster by the Socialist Party prevented the law from being passed in time for today's deadline. The head of France Télévisions, Patrick de Carolis, had originally denounced the changes as "stupid and unjust" but agreed last month to give up prime-time advertising voluntarily until the legislation was complete.

Like many Sarkozy policies, the broadcasting reform defies the normal categories and prejudices of French politics. Advertising of all kinds is regarded as wicked or spiritually demeaning by many people on the bourgeois-bohemian left. The idea of a ban on advertising on public channels was originally floated by left-wing politicians.

It is also widely accepted that French television – both state-owned and private – is a creative desert compared to the best efforts of Britain, the US and other countries. An inexplicable gulf in quality lies between French cinema and French television.

M. Sarkozy's abrupt conversion to the idea of a French BBC has caused deep suspicion, however. The President argues that the two terrestrial, state-owned channels, France 2 and France 3, spend too much money and energy chasing ratings and copying the lowest-common-denominator quiz shows and police serials on the main, private channel, TF1.

By lifting them out of the ratings and advertising game, they will, he argues, be freed to produce more cultural programmes, documentaries and higher-brow television drama (as if to please the President, the main prime-time offering on France 2 tonight will be a documentary about the Dogon people of Mali).

At present, the state-owned channels – including three new cable channels – are funded partly by advertising and partly by a redevance or television licence. This costs €116 (£111), rising to €118 or €119 this year, compared to £139.50 for a colour television licence in Britain.

From today – or when the legislation is complete – the €450m a year lost by the state channels in prime-time advertising will be refunded in its entirety by a tax on the ad revenue of private channels and a small levy on mobile phone calls. From the end of 2011, the state channels will also have to give up advertising in the morning, afternoon and early evenings.

M. Sarkozy's critics ask why this reform was so urgent when so many other of his promised social and economic changes have yet to be delivered. They claim that – despite the new tax on ad revenue – the real beneficiaries will be the large, privately-owned channels which are struggling to keep up ratings and revenues in the face of competition from cable channels and the internet. TF1 is controlled by Martin Bouygues, the billionaire businessman who is the godfather of M. Sarkozy's youngest son, Louis.

Another part of the reform, the critics point out, will allow the big private channels to introduce more advertising breaks and up to nine minutes of advertising an hour instead of the present six.

The shake-up in French broadcasting has, however, won the support of some film-makers and television programme makers who would not necessarily be fans of the President.

Pascal Thomas, a film director, said that freeing state television from the tyranny of advertising could free French audio-visual talent from the present "stifling" mixture of bureaucracy and commercialism.

"It is incredible that, for so many years, television has created so little," he said. "This reform could produce a real modernisation of state broadcasting which could unleash a spiritual revolution."

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*Nicolas Sarkozy has intervened in French television before. Last summer, he reportedly pushed for the dismissal of Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, the veteran presenter of TF1's evening news. The anchorman had irritated M. Sarkozy by, among other things, comparing him to a child. However, when an occasional dinner companion of the President, Laurence Ferrari took over reading the TF1 news, its ratings plummeted. By contrast, M. Poivre d'Arvor has risen from No 15 to No 5 in an annual poll of the most popular people in France. M. Sarkozy was 42nd in the list, out yesterday.