World: Medium of the Week - French brace themselves for the arrival of Pink-TV.(gay television channel)

France's first gay TV channel caters for an undersupplied niche, Mark Tungate writes.

With the launch of Pink-TV in France this autumn, the audiovisual landscape looks rosy for the country's gay community, which until now has been sorely underserved by broadcasters.

The driving force behind Pink-TV is the independent film producer Pascal Houzelot, who heads the enterprise. Pink-TV's other shareholders include Canal +, TF1 Digital, Groupe Lagardere, M6 Thematique and the fashion guru Pierre Berge.

'It seemed obvious that there was a market for something like this in France,' Houzelot says. 'I also felt that it would be a way of contributing to the development of gay culture.'

Early signs are that the channel could work with advertisers and viewers.

Emmanuel Charonnat, the director-general of Carat TV, says: 'The gay community accounts for between 7 and 8 per cent of the French population, so it's a very niche group. But it's a very important niche, with high consumption and spending power. And, of course, there's no competition.'

Houzelot announced the project more than two years ago, and says it has taken hard work and tenacity to get it off the ground. As well as researching the target market and honing the content, Houzelot and his team had the not-insignificant task of convincing distributors to take the channel.