Widely available, Culturebox is intended to be a cultural antidote to the coronavirus.
The idea is a temporary 24-hour channel consecrated to maintaining the link between artists and their public, currently suspended by the Covid epidemic.
The structure was put together quickly, approved by the audiovisual authorities in record time, and is, we are assured by those behind the project, anything but a sideshow for tired repeats.
And no ads either, which means that the French broadcaster, already in severe budgetary difficulties, will have to make further cuts to find the five million euros needed to run the temporary service. Unless partnership deals can be struck with the few French businesses still functioning.
Room for everyone, everything
On the menu: concerts, dance and theatre with, hopefully, an occasional plunge into the rich archives of the National Audiovisual Institute (INA). No aspect of the French cultural scene will be ignored.
There'll also be a daily section devoted to interviews with artists and performers, to enable them to talk about work in progress.
Those invited for the first daily chat include electro singer Suzane, soprano Sandrine Piau, rapper Abd Al Malik, writer and performer Rébecca Chaillon, and dancers Nadia Gabrieli-Kalati and Anaïs Imbert-Cléry, as well as hip hop choreographer Odile Lacides.
Dissenting voices
Not everyone is equally enthusiastic about the project.
While welcoming the initiative as "better than nothing", Olivier Darbois, head of Prodiss, the union representing theatre producers, tells Le Monde newspaper that Culturebox won't change anything fundamental for a sector in crisis.
"Our job," Darbois explains, "is to create emotion. You can't do that through a screen, which filters feelings. Nothing will ever replace the magic of a live performance.
"A television service won't save us today, and it won't save us tomorrow."
Showcase for emerging talent
France Télévisions, which spends nearly 20 million euros every year recording live performances, has promised to dig out some of its classics to support daytime broadcasting, with evenings providing a series of showcases for emerging talent.
The virus won't kill culture. The show will go on. It's just the venue and the format that have had to be adjusted. But it's all temporary: Culturebox will disappear once real culture returns.
