French President Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed new taxes on internet access and mobile phone use.
The new taxes would help fund France's two public television channels, which would be free of advertising.
There would also be a levy on the advertising revenue made by France's private broadcasters.
The prospect of less competition for advertising revenue sent television channel shares higher on Tuesday, with TF1 up 8.9% and M6 rising 5.7%.
"It frees up 800m euros ($1.18bn; £598m) in advertising revenue earned by French state television," said Arnaud Frerault, an analyst from CA Cheuvreux in Paris.
The ideas were aspects of what Mr Sarkozy calls his "policy of civilisation".
They were announced at his first full press conference at the Elysee Palace since his election seven months ago.
He promised a "cultural revolution in public service television", to be funded by "a tax on the higher advertising income of private channels and the revenues generated by new means of communication such as internet access or mobile telephones".
President Sarkozy reassured new media users that the new taxes would be "infinitesimal".
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