Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (; RTF; "French Radio and Television Broadcasting") was the French national public broadcaster television organization established on 9 February 1949 to replace the post-war "''Radiodiffusion Française''" (RDF), which had been founded on 23 March 1945 to replace ''Radiodiffusion Nationale'' (RN), created on 29 July 1939. It was replaced in its turn, on 26 June 1964, by the notionally less-strictly government controlled

Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française The (; ORTF; , or French Radio and Television Broadcasting Office) was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. All programming, especially news broadcasts, were under strict cont ...

(ORTF), which itself lasted until the end of 1974. RTF was both state-owned and state-controlled. With a budget set by the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

under the direction of the Ministry of Information, all of its spending and investment plans had to be directly agreed by the Minister of Information and the Minister of Finance. Alain Peyrefitte, Minister of Information, speaking in a debate in the National Assembly on 26 May 1964,French National Assembly archives
/ref> described RTF as "the government in every Frenchman's dining-room" – ''La RTF, c'est le gouvernement dans la salle à manger de chaque Français''.

History

A public monopoly on broadcasting in France had been established with the formation of Radiodiffusion Française (RDF) in 1945. RDF was renamed "Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française" (RTF) in 1949 and ORTF in 1964. From the beginning, the public broadcaster experienced fierce competition from the "peripheral stations": French-speaking stations aimed at the French public but transmitting on

longwave In radio, longwave (also spelled long wave or long-wave and commonly abbreviated LW) is the part of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave (MW) broadcasting band. The term is historic, dati ...

from neighbouring countries, such as Radio Monte Carlo (RMC) from Monaco,

Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg). The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...

(later RTL) from

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

, and Europe 1 from Germany (exceptionally, in 1974, RMC was allowed to set up a transmitter on French territory).

Offices

RTF's head offices were located in the avenue de Friedland in the

8th arrondissement of Paris The 8th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, the arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''le huitième'' (). The ar ...

. Its television studios and technical buildings were at 13–15 rue Cognacq-Jay.

Channels

By the start of the 1960s, the RTF had established five radio and two television channels:

Radio

*France I (later France Inter) on

long wave In radio, longwave (also spelled long wave or long-wave and commonly abbreviated LW) is the part of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave (MW) broadcasting band. The term is historic, datin ...

*France II (regional programmes, closed on 8 December 1963 and replaced by ''Inter Variétés'' – a variation of ''France Inter'' for older listeners) on high-power medium-wave transmitters *France III (later

France Culture France Culture () is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France Radio France () is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist ...

) on low-power medium-wave transmitters *France IV (later

France Musique France Musique () is a French national public radio channel owned and operated by Radio France. It is devoted to the broadcasting of music, both live and recorded, with particular emphasis on classical music and jazz. History The channel was lau ...

) on FM only *France V (formerly Radio Alger, a name which it was to resume on 5 July 1962 when it ceased to be part of RTF following the independence of Algeria)

Television

*''La première chaîne'' ("The First Channel"), broadcast in black and white from 25 July 1948 on VHF 819 lines, and until 3 January 1956 on 441 lines. For a period, experimental 625-line transmissions (test cards) in colour using the French

SECAM SECAM, also written SÉCAM (, ''Séquentiel de couleur à mémoire'', French for ''sequential colour memory''), is an analog color television system that was used in France, Russia and some other countries or territories of Europe and Africa. ...

system (see below) were made on the channel's VHF network each Tuesday morning. *''La deuxième chaîne'' ("The Second Channel"), created on 21 December 1963 and broadcast on UHF 625 lines, initially in black and white only. Colour transmissions in

were introduced (on this channel only) on 1 October 1967.

Regional television

Regional television, for areas outside Paris, was slow to develop compared with the situation in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The first regional station, known as Télé-Lille, began broadcasting on 10 April 1950 with two hours a day of programming for

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

and its surrounding area. The station's main news programme was called ''Images du Nord'' ("Images of the North"). Télé-Lille's signal did not stop at the country's borders, with the result that the station had five times more viewers in the Belgian provinces of

West Flanders West Flanders is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the North Sea to the northwest. It has land borders with the Dutch province of Zeeland to the northeast, the Flemis ...

East Flanders East Flanders ( ; ; ; ) is a Provinces of Belgium, province of Belgium. It borders (clockwise from the North) the Netherlands, Dutch province of Zeeland and the Belgian provinces of Antwerp (province), Antwerp, Flemish Brabant, Hainaut (provinc ...

, and Hainaut than it had in northern France. By February 1952, the establishment of a co-axial link with the RTF's studios in Paris meant that Télé-Lille, when not televising its own programmes, could relay RTF's main Paris-originated programming. In an attempt to counter the spread in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

of the viewing of programmes from regional television in the neighbouring German ''

Land Land, also known as dry land, ground, or earth, is the solid terrestrial surface of Earth not submerged by the ocean or another body of water. It makes up 29.2% of Earth's surface and includes all continents and islands. Earth's land sur ...

'' of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

– the inhabitants of

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

had, for example, been able to watch the coronation in June 1953 of Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

of the United Kingdom only on West German television – Télé-Strasbourg began broadcasting on 15 October 1953. Marseille followed on 20 September 1954,

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

on 8 November 1954,

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

in August 1961,

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

on 25 January 1962, and most other regional centres opened shortly thereafter. From late 1963, the regional programmes were also broadcast on ''La deuxième chaîne'' by using optical standard conversion in the regional centres (a 625 lines camera aimed at an 819 lines monitor with a special CRT) in order to better adapt the regional coverage to the new "regions" created in France, and they remained even after the opening of ''La troisième chaîne'' (The Third Channel) under the ORTF on 31 December 1972, all three networks broadcasting the regional news, sometimes from two or even three different production centres (e.g. Niort broadcasting Poitiers on networks 1 and 3, and Nantes on network 2).

Directors

The directors of the RTF were directly appointed by the Minister of Information. Directors-general: * Wladimir Porché: 9 February 1949 – 1 February 1957 * Gabriel Delaunay: 1 February 1957 – July 1958 * Christian Chavanon: July 1958 – 21 March 1960 * Raoul Ergman: 21 March 1960 – February 1962 * Robert Bordaz: February 1962 – 23 July 1964 Assistant directors-general: * Raymond Janot: 21 March 1960 – February 1962 Directors of programmes, television: * Jean Luc: April 1949 – February 1951 * Jean Arnaud: February 1951 – June 1952 * Jean d'Arcy: June 1952 – October 1959 * Albert Ollivier: October 1959 – 23 July 1964 Directors of news: * Louis Terrenoire: 7 July 1958 – November 1958 * Albert Ollivier: November 1958 – June 1961 * André-Marie Gérard: June 1961 – April 1963 Directors of news (television): * Raymond Marcillac: April 1963 Directors of sport: * Raymond Marcillac: 12 September 1958

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Radiodiffusion-Television Francaise Television networks in France Television channels and stations established in 1949 Radio stations established in 1949 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1964 Radio stations disestablished in 1964 Public broadcasting in France 1949 in France 1940s in French television Defunct radio stations in France