Three Hours of Shows a Week : French Make Deal to Broadcast Disney Programs

Three hours of children’s shows will be broadcast weekly on TF1 television under a contract signed this week by the world’s premier producer of children’s programs and France’s largest network.

Negotiations are still under way for 75 minutes of weekend programming, said Etienne Mougeotte, a spokesman for the private French network, at a news conference.

Mougeotte declined to say how much the network paid for the programs produced by Disney Studios, which also is negotiating with the network to provide feature-length films.

“We are delighted to announce this agreement at the time when Mickey Mouse is celebrating his 60th birthday, and we are sure that it is the beginning of a very long collaboration with TF1,” said Pierre Sissman, a spokesman for Disney in France.

The first show, to be broadcast at Christmas, will be “Magical Voyage to Disney World,” a film about the Orlando, Fla., amusement park.

French children already are familiar with the Disney family of cartoon characters from feature films which are regularly broadcast and from the broadcast of Disney programming on the network FR3 every Saturday night.

The contract between Disney and FR3 ended several weeks ago.

French broadcasters have come under increasing pressure in the last few months to reduce the amount of violence on French television and upgrade the quality of programming available to children.