In Africa, there is a new player in the media landscape, the French-language version of the public Russian television, Russia Today (RT). This new channel will add up to the bundle of international media which broadcast in the French language throughout the continent, each representing a powerful nation. There is France 24, the Israeli channel i24News, Al-Jazeera for Qatar and the Chinese CCTV4.

The public channel RT wants to launch in the near future a French version which will be a 24-hours news channel, delivering the Russian vision of the world. The project was presented during the world's entertainment content market of Cannes which is currently taking place in France, by the ex-Deputy news editor of RT, Irakly Gachechiladze. He has been in charge of RT's French service since the beginning of the year.

This service is at the moment only a video stream available online. It will become a full-time television channel broadcasting 60% to 70% of original contents in French. This is a type of Russian "France 24" Irakly Gachechiladze said. "Considering the current environment, it is important to share the Russian vision", he added to explain the legitimacy of the future French language channel. The news is about the war in Syria. The news was also the war led in Libya by France and NATO for which Russia did not give its approval.

L’un des programmes phares de la nouvelle chaîne pourrait bien être un talk-show. Irakly Gachechiladze annonce des collaborations avec « de grands journalistes français » dès 2016, sans plus de précisions.

On of the most popular programmes of the new channel could be a talk show. Irakly Gachechiladze announced partnerships with "major French journalists" starting from 2016, without giving more details.

The Russian channel will first broadcast via internet box and satellite. Later on, it will transmit in Africa like other international media. In 2014, Africans were already more than half of the 274 million people worldwide capable of expressing themselves in French, according to the report of the International Organisation of French speaking countries on the use of the French language. French is gaining ground in Africa. Thanks to the demographic growth on this continent, over 765 million people will speak French by 2060.