PARIS - MILLIONS of French television viewers tuned in on Monday evening to watch their favourite prime-time shows uninterrupted by ad breaks as President Nicolas Sarkozy's controversial media reform got under way.

The ban on advertising on France's public television network after 8pm (3am Singapore time) has been described as a cultural revolution affecting nearly 25 million viewers.

In the 8pm news on state broadcaster France 2 presenter David Pujadas spoke of 'the big bang of your station' and invited viewers 'to stay with us to watch this first evening free of advertising'.

Advertising will be phased out gradually between now and 2011, with the period from 8pm to 6am affected first.

General programming on France 2 and sister channel France 3 will now start immediately after the news at 8pm.

The board of directors of France Televisions voted last month to ban advertising as a government bill overhauling state broadcasting got bogged down in parliament.

The bill comes up for debate again in the Senate on Wednesday and unions have called a strike for that day.

Staff at France 3 television, one of the four state channels, walked off the job on Monday to protest the changes and several midday newscasts were scrapped along with other programmes.

Championed by Mr Sarkozy, the legislation would give the president authority to directly name the head of France Televisions instead of the current procedure of appointment through an independent body.

The reform has been attacked as a power grab by Mr Sarkozy and criticised for handing an advertising revenue boon to private broadcasters such as TF1, owned by Mr Martin Bouygues, a friend of the president.

Mr Sarkozy has said the ban on advertising is a major step to model French public television along the lines of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Supporters of the measure argue state television will no longer have to air shows with mass appeal to draw high audience ratings and advertising revenue.

But critics say it will deprive state broadcasting of badly-needed funds.

The ban will be offset by two new taxes, on Internet service providers and on the extra ad revenue channelled to private television networks.

The 450 million euros (S$907.5 million) needed to plug the revenue gap have already been written into the 2009 French budget.

'Let's talk about it in a year's time,' Culture Minister Christine Albanel said. 'I predict the French will love this new television programming that is emerging.' -- AFP