French and German new media policies: Variations on a familiar theme

France and West Germany moved decisively into the new media era during the 1980s, as each formulated ambitious nationwide cable television expansion policies while encouraging the launching of satellite services capable of stimulating this cable television growth. Although these efforts paralleled each other in time and purpose, they differed in their approaches to policy and in the social objectives they sought to achieve. This study compared these different policy processes responding to the same general new media issues to determine whether either country has been successful in realizing the established media objectives.