Big Brother in France

A version of the Big Brother format in France which has a prize for the winner of almost �300,000 has attracted huge audiences despite massive public criticism.

Loft Story, France's version of Big Brother has divided the country. Followed in unprecedented numbers by an insatiable and voyeuristic public, the show has shocked France's political and cultural establishment.

In May 2001, Segol�ne Royal, the French minister for the family, criticised the show's 'vulgarity and debasing effect on public morals' and a protest group called 'Smile, you're on camera' planned for a mass-dumping of rubbish ouside the offices of M6, Loft Story's broadcaster. But although the French elite express dismay at the "Who farted?" level of conversation and the 'stomach-turning exhibitionism', France's youth have become addicted.

The show has propelled M6, a niche TV company, to prime-time market leadership. The 11 inhabitants of the camera-studded "loft" in the Paris suburbs have attracted 7.7m viewers, or nearly 40 per cent of the total TV audience. The show's 75 per cent share of people aged 15 to 24 makes Loft Story particularly hot property for TV advertisers. Rivals have not held back from attacking M6 for lowering the tone of French broadcasting. Leading the outrage is TF1, the dominant private broadcaster.

French newspaper Le Monde devoted its front page to Loft Story, for the third time in a week. Patrick Le Lay, TF1's chief executive described a secret meeting with Nicolas de Tavernost, his counterpart at M6 at which the two agreed not to show "Big Brother-style trash telly". He added: "Can anything be shown on television? Like two out of three French people, we at TF1 answer 'No'. A large, free TV channel, available without encryption to everyone, including the young, has to observe ethical rules." To which M6 chairman Nicolas de Tavernost replied: "The violence of the TF1 chairman's attacks is proportionate to the success of Loft Story. We are perfectly calm."

"Things are getting unhealthy. With candidates eliminated one after another, psychological violence is being inflicted on these young people, exposing them to a declining sense of self-esteem and public humiliation," said Mrs Royal, who now plans to present broadcasters with rules on 'violence and pornography'. But the floodgates are now open. TF1 is proceeding with plans to launch Robinson Adventure, its own version of Survivor, set on a desert island, while France 2, a government-owned TV channel, is also thought to be examining a similar adventure-based contest.

Adding insult to injury, M6 has decided to move its daily Loft Story highlights show to the crucial 7 pm spot, where it will compete head on with a successful TF1 game show. Meanwhile TF1 has tried to prevent TPS, its satellite joint venture with M6, from broadcasting round-the-clock, real-time Loft Story.

French TV channel M6 has now agreed it will observe the recommendations put forward by the French audio-visual authority (CSA) on Loft Story.

The contestants will now have two hours a day when they will not be recorded if they stay in one of the two bedrooms. Furthermore, when nominations are made, they will name people they want to stay in the house rather than those they want to leave.