France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public

television broadcaster A television broadcaster or television network or is a telecommunications network for distribution of television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or, in the United St ...

. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

France 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 A ...

(formerly Antenne 2) and

France 3 France 3 () is a French free-to-air public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5 and France Info. It is made up of a network of regional television services provi ...

(formerly France Régions 3), later joined by the legally independent channels

France 4 France 4 () is a French free-to-air television channel owned by France Télévisions, focused on children's programming. The colour of France 4 is purple. Originally launched as Festival in 1996, the channel took its current name in 2005 when it ...

(formerly Festival),

France 5 France 5 () is a French free-to-air public television channel, part of the France Télévisions group. Principally featuring educational programming, the channel's motto is ''la chaîne de la connaissance et du savoir'' (the knowledge network). ...

(formerly La Cinquième) and

France Info France Info (stylised as franceinfo:) is a French Public broadcasting, public broadcasting service produced in collaboration with France Télévisions, Radio France, France Médias Monde and the Institut national de l'audiovisuel. The serv ...

. France Télévisions is currently funded by the revenue from television licence fees and

commercial advertising A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

. The new law on public broadcasting will phase out commercial advertising on the public television channels (at first in the evening, then gradually throughout the day). France Télévisions is a supporter of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) initiative that is promoting and establishing an open European standard for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface, and has selected HbbTV for its interactive news, sports and weather service, and plans to add catch-up TV and social media sharing capability.

History

From 1964 to 1975, French radio and television was monopolized through an organization known as the

Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française L'Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF; ) was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. All programming, and especially news broadcasts, were under strict control ...

. In an effort to stimulate competition, the organization was split in 1975 so that France's three television channels— TF1,

Antenne 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 ...

, and FR3, would still be owned by the French government, but be operated independently from each other. However, the privatization of TF1 in 1987 and increased competition from other new private broadcasters (such as

Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

and

La Cinq La Cinq () was France's first privately owned free-to-air television network. Created by politician Jérôme Seydoux and Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, the network broadcast from 1985 to 1992. The contract for France's fifth terrest ...

, the latter having been replaced by public channel

La Cinquième France 5 () is a French free-to-air public television channel, part of the France Télévisions group. Principally featuring educational programming, the channel's motto is ''la chaîne de la connaissance et du savoir'' (the knowledge network). ...

after it ceased transmissions in April 1992) led to a decline in viewership for the two remaining public channels, which lost 30% of their market share between 1987 and 1989.Rigourd, Serge. "France", in ''Western Broadcasting at the Dawn of the 21st Century'', pp. 255, 270. Eds. Haenens, Leen; Saeys, Frieda. Walter de Gruyter, 2001. The channels were however saved when a single director-general was appointed to manage both Antenne 2 and FR3, becoming part of a joint entity known as France Télévision. They were renamed in 1992 as France 2 and France 3, respectively. In August 2000, France Télévisions S.A. was formed as a holding company for France's public television channels, absorbing control of France 2, France 3, and La Cinquième (later renamed France 5). In 2004,

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 weath ...

was absorbed by France Télévisions. Beginning in 2008, the

President of France The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency i ...

took the duty of naming the presidents for the French public broadcasters; they were previously nominated by the

Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel The (, ''lit.'' ''Superior Audiovisual Council''), abbreviated CSA, was a French institution created in 1989 whose role was to regulate the various electronic media in France, such as radio and television. The creation of the was a measure foun ...

. In 2013, under Francois Hollande, the previously adopted law was modified to return the power to nominate the presidents or French public broadcasters to the

Channels

National

– The company's primary channel with the second largest viewing audience. *

– The company's secondary channel, consisting of a network of regional stations. *

– Available only on digital television. Previously named "Festival" (1996–2005), and specializing in theatre, opera and French-language and other European originated drama, it is now a channel containing children's programmes, sports, sitcom, arts, music and entertainment. *

– Focuses on societal issues (health, education, politics...) with talk-shows and culture with documentary films. * La Première – A network of radio and television stations operating in

French overseas departments and territories Overseas France (french: France d'outre-mer) consists of 13 French-administered territories outside Europe, mostly the remains of the French colonial empire that chose to remain a part of the French state under various statuses after decoloni ...

around the world (formerly known as RFO - Réseau France Outre-mer, Outre-mer 1ère). *

– Non-stop news channel, with support from

Radio France Radio France is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: * France Inter — Radio France's " generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed with a wide variety o ...

France Médias Monde France Médias Monde is a French state-owned holding company which supervises and co-ordinates the activities of the major public media organizations broadcasting or publishing internationally from France. The company's subsidiaries are the rad ...

and

Institut national de l'audiovisuel The (abbrev. INA), () is a repository of all French radio and television audiovisual archives. Additionally it provides free access to archives of countries such as Afghanistan and Cambodia. It has its headquarters in Bry-sur-Marne. Since 20 ...

. * – A culture channel which launched on 1 February 2021 that replaced

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. Its overseas counterpart is Outre-Mer ...

on TNT channel 19.

Thematic

France Télévisions has an interest in a number of thematic cable/satellite channels in France: France Télévisions holds 100% of France Télémusique SAS. The thematic channel Planète Juniors (formerly ''Ma Planète'') ceased operations in March 2009.

International

France Télévisions holds 45% of the

ARTE France Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plu ...

holding company together with the French state (25%),

(15%) and INA (15%). ''ARTE France'' and ''ARTE Deutschland'' form the

ARTE Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plus ...

Consortium that manages the

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

French-

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

channel (ARTE shared its analogue channel with France 5, but both channels have separate full-time services on cable, satellite and digital broadcasts). France Télévisions also controls the new R1 digital multiplex that currently hosts France 2, France 3, France 5,

Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plus ...

and

La Chaîne parlementaire La Chaîne parlementaire (French for ''The Parliamentary Channel'') is a French television network created, along with its sister station Public Sénat, by law on 30 December 1999. It films and broadcasts live and recorded debates twenty-four ho ...

. France 4 was originally on the R1 multiplex but was moved to R2 to allow space for regional channels on R1.

Subsidiaries

* france.tv publicité – Advertising department of the group. * france.tv distribution – Edition and commercial distribution of the programs of the group's channels on DVD, Blu-ray and VOD. * france.tv studio – Production company composed of three labels: ** france.tv access – Responsible for subtitling for deaf and hard of hearing of all the programs of the channels of the group (quality charter recognized by

AFNOR Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR, English: French Standardization Association) is a Paris-based standards organization and a member body for France at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The AFNOR Group develop ...

). ** france.tv doublage – Responsible for dubbing, audio description and subtitling of multilingual programs. ** histodio - Creation of sound works. * France 2 Cinéma and France 3 Cinéma – Films production and support for

French cinema French cinema consists of the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe; with primary influ ...

Slogans

* 7 September 1992 to May 2001: « Ça fait du bien quand ça s'allume », « Aucune hésitation, c'est France Télévision » / In English : "It does you good when it lights up", "No hesitation, it's France Television" * May 2001 to September 2006: « Donnons de l’imagination à nos images » / In English : "Let's give imagination to our images" * September 2006 to August 2008: « Vous avez tous les choix » / In English: "You have all the choices" * August 2008 to September 2011: « Le choix de la différence » / In English: "The choice of difference" * September 2011 to September 2012: « Créer pour partager » / In English: "Create to share" * September 2012 to 2018: « Bien différents, bien ensemble » / In English: "Very different, well together" * Since 2018: « Plus rien ne se fera sans vous » / In English: "Nothing more will happen without you"

Logo gallery

File:France Télévisons logo 1992.png, France Télévisions' first logo from 1992 to 2000 File:Logo von France Télévisions.png, France Télévisions' third logo from 2002 to 2008 File:France Télévisions (ab 2008).svg, France Télévisions' fourth logo from 2008 to 2011 File:France télévisions 2012 logo.svg, France Télévisions' sixth logo from 2012 to 2018

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:France Televisions Publicly funded broadcasters Government-owned companies of France European Broadcasting Union members French-language television networks Television networks in France 1992 establishments in France Television channels and stations established in 1992