Actually, I'm not sure I can force the backlight to stay on from within the app itself. There is an option in the Maemo "Settings" app under the "Display" category called "Display stays lit while charging", that will leave the backlight on while the phone is plugged in. I should note, though, that when I tried streaming down a video and charging the battery while leaving the backlight on, the phone did get fairly warm. Use with caution!

I will investigate more French news sources. (I should at least get some French broadcasts for the CBC, as I've already got English ones...)

Edit: Scratch that, dunno what I'm thinking. The normal media player plays video without the screen going dark, so I just need to find the right settings somewhere...