While it doesn't sink quite as low as its Mediterranean neighbours, French TV is hardly a beacon of French culture – though media "intellectuals" get a surprising amount of airtime, pontificating about politics, culture or other talk shows. Programming is dominated by such celebrity-led talking shops, as well as game shows, bought-in Transatlantic soaps and, increasingly, reality TV – notably the titillating Loft Story, France's take on Big Brother.There are six channels (see "Basics" for details). Arte and La Cinq are two different channels sharing the same frequency. La Cinq, an educational channel, broadcasts during the day, then at 7pm, Arte, a joint Franco–German cultural venture, takes over. Its highbrow programmes, daily documentaries, art criticism, serious French and German movies and complete operas are transmitted simultaneously in French and German. Canal Plus is the main movie channel (and financer of the French film industry), with repeats of foreign films usually shown at least once in the original language. F3 screens a fair selection of serious movies, with its Cinéma de Minuit slot late on Sunday nights good for foreign, undubbed films.
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