Because they have valuable content they want to limit to paying viewers or customers, simple as that.
It is true they have valuable content. It is value to some (for instance myself) but not to all. I do not have a French ancestry of any kind and I just happened to learn French at a certain point in my life. I consider this learning as some sort of investment that I made and I feel the need to protect it to some extent. However, it is not that important for me to deserve the pain and cost to subscribe to TV5. Once in a while I do check the cost and just for having TV5 (nothing else) it would cost me $20/month. The bad news for me is that even that would not be enough. I happen to live in a homeowners association with very strict rules with respect to what you can have on the roof. It took me an application, a denial, an appeal for reconsideration, a visit home from the appropriate committee, a change of location for the dish and a personal appeal (short of begging) to get approval for my existing fta dish. At this point, if I want to get another antenna (for TV5) I will have to give up the fta channels that I want.
Now, with respect to how valuable the TV5 is, I did a nonscientific survey of my extended group of friends to find out how many speak French to the point of enjoying watching it (TV5). I can count at least 20 people. They all had access to TV5 at a certain point in the past (for instance when living on a campus or, in other cases before coming to USA). In my 12 years in USA, I never met an individual who spoke French and also had a TV5 subscription, not even French people.
Another angle to see the value of TV5 is to acknowledge that this program is free to air in Europe, all Asia, and Africa. My question is: if the program is so valuable, why they give it for free everywhere except America? The only answer I have for this question is that they have made a conscious business decision. They noticed that in America, the vast majority of programming is fee based and decided to make some money. It appears they are happy with fewer customers as long as they make money. Based on their statistics, there are about 330000 households with access to TV5 in USA. I am sure they count entire campuses where most probably only a few are actively watching it. In my research for an answer to the question above, I have written in the past to two French Presidents: Jaques Chirac and to the current President Nicolas Sarekozy. I also contacted in repeated occasions the TV5 headquarters in France, the French Embassy in DC and the local representative of TV5 in America. Besides the fact that those exchanges provided me with some exercise in French, they all come up with the answer that in "america, tv programming is a business and therefore, to participate, we need to engage in it the way it is: charging a fee". I even went as far as to check the mission adopted for TV5. One reference reads: "Définie dans la charte de la chaîne, adoptée lors de la 19e conférence des ministres responsables de TV5 du 19 septembre 2005, la mission générale de service public de TV5 Monde consiste à assurer le rayonnement mondial du patrimoine audiovisuel francophone dans toute sa diversité en reflétant la dimension multilatérale de la Francophonie." I am not going to translate this but in my judgment making money is not the main purpose they were set up for. Unfortunately, they forgot about it, after all... who reads the mission statements other than auditors?
I am not done with assessing the value of TV5. One of the important things in their programming (at least for me) are the French movies. There are two issues with this:
1. Not everybody likes French movies. This includes people who speak French or where educated in French. I dont enjoy all the French movies I was able to see in the past. I do enjoy some. But when it comes to this, I always remember a vivid discussion with a large group of students in France who were studying there with French stipends (full scholarships). I need to make the point that although I dreamed about getting a French scholarship to study in France myself (actually I had a job lined up and whiling to work my way up through college there if accepted) applied to get accepted in schools in France, visited the most my budget allowed me to, I never got a reply from them (not even a denial). Now, this group of young foreign students on French scholarships was discussing the quality of the French cinema and it just daunted on me that they did not like it at all. They argued that "le film Francais s'est nul" or, in other words that it is worthless. The good news is that they all enjoyed the american movies and please dont get me wrong, I like the american movies just not all of them. I only had an expectation that out of some sort of reverence for the chance and opportunity those students were given, they will at least try to pay respect to the country hosting them. Well, everybody has the right to like or dislike in this free world but what I am getting out of this is that TV5 is not as valuable even to people that may have benefited from the French culture.
2. The TV5 MONDE USA is actually a different program from TV5 MONDE EUROPE. They have several other variations in different parts of the world. What that means practically, is that the French movies come with English subtitles. This looks good, and for those not speaking French this is indeed a useful addition to help them understand and enjoy a French movie. Unfortunately, this is not what I need. Especially because I do understand French (but not perfectly) I need French subtitles to help me out and not English. Again, I hope nobody will accuse me of not watching american programming but I can assure you that most of the time, when I am renting an american movie, I watch it with Close Captioning ON. But I have it in English and not in French or any other language. I doubt the average person can easily watch a movie in one language, read the subtitles in another one and simultaneously improve their skills in both.
One of the programs I used to enjoy on TV5 was Thalassa. It appears that on the website of France 3 (
Thalassa : le magazine de la mer présenté par Georges Pernoud - France3) one can watch full episodes of this program. If it is so valuable as to restrict it to paying viewers why it is free online on the website of the host channel? Is there a hidden cost? Is there a "use tax" that I am supposed to pay voluntarily for watching it even if the program is offered free online?
In my view this is not simple at all but I am not going into the details of what may be the lost opportunities for the promoters of TV5 due to the business model they chose for North America. Its not worth it (to me).
to Satelliteguys from another Twin Citian (on the south side of the now seriously flooded Minnesota river) 
Tele Citronelle isn't there anymore. It's been replaced by Tele Anacoana (or something like that) which has programming in English and in French from what I could see. 
