For years the French media was notoriously set in its ways - but a newcomer on the scene has spiced things up. BFMTV has, in a short space of time, managed to steal a large chunk of the audience, reports the BBC.
So what's the secret of its success?
In a kebab shop on Rue Glacière in a working-class area of southern Paris, they keep the television permanently plugged to BFMTV. In a brasserie off the Champs-Elysées that caters for bankers and the foreign rich, they do the same.
In hotels and airports, BFMTV is the channel of choice. It's the same in political party headquarters - even the Elysée Palace.
So how, in a few years, has a small independent news channel come to be one of the most influential voices in French media and politics? And what does its popularity say about the changing face of France?
When it was founded in 2005 - a time of fast expansion in French broadcasting - BFMTV was a little-regarded newcomer.
But by plumping for a reactive, live format - and dumping the French habit of endless pre-recorded talk - it quickly caught on.
Today with 10 million viewers every day, BFMTV boasts a market share in France that is greater than any equivalent news channel around the world.
"Television in France was consensus-based and institutional. No-one dared cross the line. No-one dared to be spicy. But because we started from scratch we were able to invent our own genre," says managing director Guillaume Dubois.
BFMTV has a policy - priorité au direct - of where possible always going live to an outside feed. Technology allows them to broadcast quickly and cheaply from where it counts.
Read more of this report from the BBC.