It wasn’t until 12:01AM France-Time that French business owners were able to advertise on television. Retailers will now be able to advertise on air adter the ban was removed which was originally put in place to protect the ad revenue of newspapers in the country. In 2004, the European Union called the ban a restriction on free-trade. Since that time, ads were appeared on cable and specialty channels only but will now appear on mainstream television channels. The ad spending is expected to increase (duh) dramatically now that the ban has been lifted.