糖心原创

Entertainment or Slant? Media Demand and the Effects of Channel Closures in France (with Camille Urvoy) 

Abstract

How does entertainment shape exposure to political content? We exploit a natural experiment in France, where two free-to-air entertainment channels ceased broadcasting in February 2025 after a regulatory decision. One of them aired a popular talk show blending entertainment with conservative political commentary. Using a four-wave panel survey of 2,509 respondents and a difference-in-differences design, we find that overall television consumption remained stable after the discontinuation. The show's viewers moved to entertainment and generalist channels, but neither to news nor to same-slant shows or channels. Leveraging viewers' perceptions of the show and their substitution patterns, we argue that they were drawn to it by its entertainment value rather than by its political slant, although this slant left no close substitute among other entertaining shows. After the shutdown, these viewers knew more politicians, especially among the least politically interested, and answered more hard-news questions correctly. Their priorities, policy views and polarization, however, did not change. Our paper suggests that political entertainment shapes what and whom its viewers know, but not what they want or think, with implications for media regulation.