Partners
This year, the aventure is beginning in Portugal. Loyal to the spirit of such adventure, France Télévisions is taking up its place in the caravan which will be leading us to the finish in Dakar. For the 2006 edition, we have once more decided to place the emphasis on what makes the race's renown and –already– its legend, namely the competitors' sporting exploits and the endlessly renewed discovery of a continent.
France 2 / France 3 will be there with “Saga Dakar” on France 2 from 18.00 to 18.45 each day. As the title clearly indicates, the programme will be divided into two parts: the first covering recent past events, with guests, reports along the race route giving an account of the history of the countries through which the caravan goes. But also the daily life of their inhabitants. The second part will be devoted to the race itself: cars, bikes, trucks, and, as often as possible, we shall be at the finishing line so as to give a real-time account of the stage, as we do for instance on cycling's Tour de France.
Second slot during the day: the “Journal du Dakar” on France 3 at 20.10. This is a quick, picture report of the stage taking in all categories, cars, bikes and trucks, added to which will be an account of race highlights.
To round off the evening, “Bivouac” on France 2 provides the third course of the daily menu. Here we shall be handing over to those who are the soul of the Dakar and constitute its success – the hundreds of competitors who come to rub shoulders with the desert, just to be part of the adventure. It is their stories we shall be listening to, their joys, their pains. This year, Bivouac will be underpinned by as complete a summary as possible of the day's stage.
An innovation in 2006 will be the arrival on the Dakar of a third “joker in the pack” or, to be more precise, a third public service channel from the France Télévisions group: France 4. Every morning, France 4 will be rebroadcasting “Saga Dakar” and “Bivouac”, thus widening the audience even more.
This then is the daily menu we have worked out, to which must be added the live broadcast from Dakar of “Stade 2” magazine, France Télévisions' flagship sports programme.
3 daily programmes, a fourth slot on France 4 and a fifth on France 2 testify to the public service's attachment and unflagging loyalty to the competition.
Daniel BILALIAN
Sporting Director
France Télévisions