name being too Franco-centric for an international news channel. State takes over In 2008 Groupe TF1 ceded its share in the channel to a government-owned holding company, Société de l'audiovisuel extérieur de la France (AEF), whilst conversely committing to producing programmes for the channel until 2015. Despite the launch of France 24, the fragmentation of public broadcasting overseas continues. The total budget for external broadcasting from France totalled 300 million euro each year. Following the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as president in May 2007, a "steering committee" of twenty members was called in with view to reform in June 2007. President Sarkozy called on Bernard Kouchner and Christine Albanel, respectively Foreign Minister and Culture Minister to reform the current system. The proposition of reform was met with concern from Belgium, Switzerland and Canada/Québec, as the public broadcasters involved in TV5 (of which the French government holds a 49% share whilst the three aforementioned countries hold 11% each) consider TV5 to be a promoter of the wider French-language world. Just one month after France 24's launch, TV5 renamed itself TV5Monde. As published in the Journal Officiel de la République Française of 23 January 2009, a Decree for 23 January 2009 appeared, "authorising the company France Télévisions to cede its share in the capital of the France 24 company". The same Decree transferred its share to the Société de l'audiovisuel extérieur de la France (AEF), which made AEF sole shareholder of France 24, for the sum of 4 million euro. Under one maison (2008–present) President Nicolas Sarkozy announced on 8 January 2008 that he was in favour of reducing France 24's programming to French only. In January 2012 AEF announced a merger between France 24 and Radio France International, a procedure finalised on 13 February 2012. It is expected that staff from Radio France International (which includes Arabic sister-station Monte Carlo Doualiya) will move to premises currently home to France 24. Alain de Pouzilhac, president of AEF stated in Le Monde, "We have just created a French audiovisual group of international dimensions, that aspires to be powerful and ambitious; [the merger] is irreversible and is definitive" 102 posts, of which 85 from RFI, were cut preceding the official merger. Editorial teams, technical and distribution, financial and human resources departments of both France 24 and RFI were involved. On 13 February 2012 the merger of France 24 and RFI was made official. A