Saint Pierre and Miquelon La Première, or SPM La Première (, ), is an La Première station in Saint-Pierre,

Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon ( ), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, located near the Canada, Canadian prov ...

, France, serving the Saint Pierre and Miquelon archipelago (channel 1, FQN

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

). It is a local French public television channel from

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...

. It is also the only local channel in this French overseas territory, as no other channel exists in the archipelago. In

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

, the channel's total budget is 11.9 million euros and it employs 85.5 full-time staff, including 19 journalists. The channel has also been available in Canada by satellite via

Shaw Direct Shaw Direct G.P. is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Rogers Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two ...

(channel no. 782) and by cable on the digital cable networks of Videotron (channel no. 50) and

Cogeco Cogeco Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications and media company. Its corporate offices are located at 1 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec. The company is structured into three strategic business units (SBU); Cogeco Connexion, Breezeline (p ...

(channel no. 203) since

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, despite opposition from the private Quebec network

TVA The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

. As of July 10, 2010, it is no longer available on the

Bell Satellite TV Bell Satellite TV (; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Bell Fibe TV, Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite television service a ...

satellite package (channel 147), following a unilateral commercial decision.

History

Television was born in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon on April 20, 1967, with the first broadcasts by the ''

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). The station's technicians and journalists had to cope with the archipelago's capricious weather conditions, and were given very little resources to do so. Following the break-up of the ORTF on December 31, 1974, and the creation of the new national program company France Régions 3 (FR3), which controls all regional radio and TV channels, the station became FR3 Saint Pierre and Miquelon on January 6, 1975, and switched to color. On December 31, 1982, FR3 Saint Pierre and Miquelon changed its name to RFO Saint Pierre and Miquelon, following the creation of the national programming company RFO ( ''Radio Télévision Française d'Outre-Mer'') by transferring FR3's overseas activities. Television advertising was authorized on February 1, 1984. From 1988 to 2010, a second terrestrial television channel, RFO 2, is broadcast. RFO Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon was then renamed RFO 1. The station was managed by journalist Alain Quintrie from 1989. Télé Saint Pierre and Miquelon was finally created on February 1, 1999, when RFO was transformed into ''

Réseau France Outre-mer The term réseau derives from a French word meaning "network". It may mean: *a network of fine lines on a glass plate, used in photographic telescopes to make a corresponding network on photographs of the stars: see Réseau plate *a system of weat ...

''. The channel has a decentralized bureau in Miquelon. In addition to

TV5 Québec Canada TV5 Québec Canada (abbreviated to TV5) is a Canadian French-language specialty channel that focuses primarily on programming from international French-speaking broadcasters. The channel shares a broadcast licence with its sister network, Unis, ...

, Télé Saint Pierre and Miquelon also enables French television programs to reach

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

; the channel also acts as a relay between the French-speaking populations of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

and

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

and the French of the archipelago. For this reason, on May 20, 2010, the

CBC/Radio-Canada The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its English-language and F ...

and

signed an exchange agreement between the local stations of

CBAFT-DT CBAFT-DT (channel 11) is an Ici Radio-Canada Télé station in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, serving Acadians in the Maritimes and Franco-Newfoundlanders in Newfoundland and Labrador. It is part of a duopoly (broadcasting)#Canada, twinstick wi ...

(''Radio-Canada Télévision Acadie'', branded as ICI Acadie) and RFO Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon to promote each of the territories of these two very close communities. This partnership is already in place in practice, as Saint Pierre and Miquelon La Première regularly broadcasts ''Le Téléjournal Acadie'' on its airwaves, and CBAFT-DT is already present in

SPM Telecom SPM Telecom is a Internet service cable provider and a mobile phone operator in the French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon in North America. Created on September 30, 1999, it covers the territory of the archipelago off Newfoundland in 2G ...

's cable channel line-up. Audiovisual reform law no. 2004-669 of July 9, 2004 integrates the program company

into the public audiovisual group

, to which Télé Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon now belongs. On October 12, 2010, its chairman, Rémy Pflimlin, announced that Réseau France Outre-mer would be renamed Outre-Mer 1re network to coincide with the launch of DTT in the French overseas territories. All the network's TV channels changed their names on November 30, 2010, when DTT went live, and Télé Saint Pierre and Miquelon became Saint Pierre and Miquelon 1ère. The name change refers to the channel's leading position in its broadcasting territory, as well as its top position on the remote control and its numbering in line with the other

Group channels. On January 1, 2018, following a lawsuit by the cable channel

Paris Première Paris Première is a French TV channel, available on cable television, cable, satellite television, satellite and the Digital terrestrial television, digital terrestrial service, Télévision Numérique Terrestre. It was launched on 15 December 1 ...

, owned by

Groupe M6 Métropole Télévision SA, commonly known as Groupe M6 (), is a French media holding company. It was formed around the commercial television channel M6, launched in March 1987 by the CLT ( RTL Télévision) and La Lyonnaise des Eaux. In addi ...

, Saint Pierre and Miquelon 1re became Saint Pierre and Miquelon La Première. Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon La Première moves to high definition (HD) on satellite on January 15, 2020 and on DTT on September 8, 2020. On 7 April 2025, in the midst of the second Trump administration's announcement of tariffs on countries that have a trade surplus with the United States, of which

Saint-Pierre and Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon ( ), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, located near the Canadian province of ...

is the most affected territory in the world along with

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

, several English-language newspapers such as Canada's ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' and India's ''

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. Owned by The Times Group, ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961 and it is sold in all major cities in India. As of 2012, it is the world's secon ...

'' speculated that a parody report on the French public television channel Saint-Pierre and Miquelon ''La Première'' might be the cause of the trade dispute between the archipelago and the United States. The report, which turned out to be an

April Fool April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. Mas ...

's joke, claimed that the French Ministry of Armed Forces had launched a project to build a new military weapons factory to produce

CAESAR Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war. He ...

guns in the archipelago.

Corporate identity

The logo of the '' Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française'' (ORTF) Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon is made up of the four letters of the acronym placed horizontally on three ellipses, with the letter “O” at its center forming the fourth ellipse, evoking radio waves, the solar system or the path of an electron in a closed universe, below which is inscribed the word Television. The opening and closing callsigns of ORTF Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon animate a tangle of ellipses on a starry background, the first arranged to form the channel's logo, the second retracting to form a disappearing star, like an upside-down big bang. On January 6, 1975, like all FR3 regional stations, FR3 Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon adopted the new look of the third national channel, whose call sign featured the nine overseas stations and mainland France, with music composed by

Francis Lai Francis Albert Lai (; 26 April 19327 November 2018) was a French composer, noted for his film scores. He won the 1970 Oscar for Best Music, Original Score and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for the film '' Love Story''. The ...

. Following its creation on December 31, 1982, the new national program company RFO adopted its own visual identity, highlighting its global dimension in its logo and the technological advance of its satellite broadcasting in its on-air opening. The logo changed again in 1993, taking its tripartite rectangular shape from that of

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...

, but adopting three new colors - green for nature, orange for the earth and the sun, and blue for the sea - which would remain the channel's until 2005. On February 1, 1999, with the creation of country channels, Télé Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon was given a customized look to showcase its landscapes. On March 23, 2005, like RFO, Télé Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon adopted the global identity of the

group, which it joined in the summer of 2004, using the same color code as the

France Ô France Ô () was a French free-to-air television channel featuring programming from the French overseas departments and collectivities in Metropolitan France. It was part of the France Télévisions group. It was a national counterpart of the ...

channel, orange and white, but arranged in two trapezoids. For its transition to DTT on November 30, 2010, the channel was renamed “1re” in reference to its leading position in its broadcasting territory, and adopted the same visual identity as the other France Télévisions Group channels, with a yellow trapezoid referring to the sun in the French overseas territories. The logo was changed again in early 2018.

Organisation

Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon La Première is the television arm of the Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon La Première community media center, part of

' La Première network.

Managers

Regional Directors: * Alain Quintrie: 1989 - ? * Jean-François Moënnan: ? - 04/09/2005 * Laurence Mayerfeld: 05/09/2005 - 09/2008 * Gérard Christian Hoarau: 09/2008 - 01/2010 * Jean-Jacques Agostini: 02/2010 06/2012 * Yves Rambeau: 08/2012 * Gilles Derouet: 02/2020- Program Directors: * Jean-Philippe Lemee: 2003 - 31/01/2005 * Jean-Jacques Agostini * Gilles Dérouet Editors-in-chief: * Albert-Max Briand: 1988 - 1990 * Jacques Barret: 1992 - 1995 * Laurence Mayerfeld * Gonzague de La Bourdonnaye: 2004-2005 * Muriel Tauzia * Phillippe Sans: 2023-

Budget

Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon La Première has a budget of 7.5 million euros, paid for by

, over 90% of which comes from the licence fee and French government contributions to France Télévisions. Like all channels in the public broadcasting group, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon La Première is authorized to broadcast advertising between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., from which it also derives part of its resources, capped at 10% so as not to destroy competition.

Headquarters

Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon La Première's head office and television and radio studios are located in the ''Zazpiak'' building at 14 rue Gloanec in Saint-Pierre. ICI Acadie logo 2018

Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon La Première's missions are to produce local programs and to forge cooperative links with Canadian television networks (in particular,

ICI Radio-Canada Télé Ici Radio-Canada Télé (stylized as ICI Radio-Canada Télé, and sometimes abbreviated as Ici Télé) is a Television in Canada, Canadian Canadian French, French-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by the Can ...

), and internationally through magazine co-productions and

Shows

* ''Le Journal'': a daily twenty-five-minute French-language newscast presented by the company's journalists, broadcast every evening at 8:00 pm and featuring the main local news stories, as well as a summary of national and international events. * ''Le Journal de l'Acadie'': rebroadcast of ICI Radio-Canada Acadie's ''Téléjournal Acadie'', Monday to Friday at midnight. * ''À la une'': debate program on social issues presented by Claire Arrossaména. * ''Pô d'doute'': program devoted to youth. * ''Le Roi Du Bocal'': 26-minute show presented by Annaïg Morazé. Two contestants face off in this general knowledge game (questions of all kinds and questions about the Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon archipelago).

Broadcast

For 44 years, the public television channel was broadcast on the analog VHF and

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...

SÉCAM 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. ...

K' network via three TDF transmitters, all of which were switched off at around 10 a.m. on September 27, 2011, the date of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon's definitive switchover to all-digital terrestrial broadcasting. Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon La Première is broadcast in the territorial collectivity of

Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon Saint Pierre and Miquelon ( ), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, located near the Canadian province of ...

on the first channel of DTT multiplex ROM1 via three TDF transmitters (Saint-Pierre-Cap à l'Aigle on channel 37 and Phare de Galantry on channel 35, and Miquelon-Langlade-Pointe au Cheval on channel 41) at UHF PAL MPEG-4 standard and in 16:9 format in 1080i (HD). Initially scheduled for November 30, 2010, digital terrestrial broadcasting of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon La Première had to be postponed to early 2011 to enable the implementation of a

Viaccess Viaccess is a conditional access system developed by Orange S.A. There are six versions in use today, Viaccess PC2.3, Viaccess PC2.4, Viaccess PC2.5, Viaccess PC2.6, Viaccess ACS3.x/Prime Sentinel, Viaccess ACS4.1, Viaccess ACS5.0, and Viaccess A ...

signal encryption system, so that Canadian cable operators could not take over the France Télévisions and Arte channels without the agreement of the rights holders. To receive DTT, TV sets and adapters must have a slot for a CI or CI+ standard Viaccess card reader, which must include VIACCESS 3.0 decoding software. These readers are available on the island in a package including the ROM1 card (Réseau Outre-mer 1 Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon) and Freebox TV. Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon La Première is also broadcast on

's cable network. The channel has also been available in Canada by satellite via

(channel no. 782) and by cable on the digital cable networks of Videotron (channel no. 50) and

(channel no. 203) since 1998, despite opposition from the private Quebec network

. As of July 10, 2010, it is no longer available on the

satellite package (channel 147), following a unilateral commercial decision. The channel broadcasts in HD only on DTT and satellite, and in SD on other channels.

Notes and references

External links

''Le Journal of'' Saint-Pierre and Miquelon
{{Portal bar, France Television channels and stations established in 1967 1967 establishments in France Saint-Pierre, Saint Pierre and Miquelon Organizations based in Saint Pierre and Miquelon French-language television stations Television stations in North America