TF1 Group () is a French media holding company. Its best-known property is the broadcast network

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 ...

. The group was formed after TF1 was privatized in April 1987 in which the channel was launched back on January 6 1975 twelve years prior. It is controlled with a 43% stake by industrial group

Bouygues Bouygues S.A. () is a French engineering group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on the Euronext, Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip (stock market), blue chip in the ...

, and is quoted on

Euronext Paris Euronext Paris, formerly known as the Paris Bourse (), is a regulated securities trading venue in France. It is Europe's second largest stock exchange by market capitalization, behind the London Stock Exchange, as of December 2023. As of 2022, th ...

History

The history of TF1 traces back to 1975, when the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF) was split into 7 successor institutions. Allegedly to provide competition for Canal+,

La Cinq La Cinq (, ) was a French free-to-air television channel. Created by politician Jérôme Seydoux and Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, it existed from 1986 to 1992. The contract for France's fifth terrestrial network, which was suppos ...

and M6, the French government decided to privatize TF1. In April 1987, the construction conglomerate

won the resulting auction for the sale of TF1, ahead of the

Lagardère Group Lagardère S.A. () is an international group with operations in over 40 countries. Based in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, the group was founded and created in 1992 by Jean-Luc Lagardère under the name Matra, Hachette & Lagardère. Headed ...

. On 16 April, Francis Bouygues, the president of Bouygues, presented a check of three billion

francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...

to the government, completing the privatisation of TF1. In June 2009, TF1 Group agreed to buy the NT1 channel from AB Groupe, as well as AB's 40% stake in TMC Monte Carlo (which would take TF1's total stake to 80%). The deal was cleared by France's competition authority and subsequently by the

Council of State A council of state is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head ...

in December 2010, dismissing an appeal by Métropole Télévision. As part of the same transaction, the group raised its stake in WB Television to 49%. On 21 December 2012,

Discovery Communications Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1982, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Cha ...

(now known as Warner Bros. Discovery) purchased a 20% stake in

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

from TF1 Group for €170m. Discovery had the option to increase its stake to 51% in 2014. If Discovery exercised that option, TF1 Group was entitled to then exercise a put option over the remaining 49% that would see Discovery take full control. On 22 July 2015, Discovery agreed to acquire TF1's remaining 49% stake in the venture. Discovery also took a 20% share in TV Breizh, Histoire, Ushuaia TV and Stylia – for €14m, with the option of increasing its shareholding to 49% in each channel in 2014. Discovery and TF1's production arm will also work together on making programmes. TF1 Group's Newen agree to acquire a majority stake in Reel One of Montreal in July 2019. Current owner and CEO Tom Berry would retain a minority stake in the company. In December 2017, the TF1 group finds an agreement with the Canal+ group, The MYTF1 service and thus restored on CANAL decoders and on myCanal and also the control of live (Start-Over) is possible on myCanal. A similar episode occurs in September 2022. On 18 May 2021, TF1 Group and M6 Group announced that both companies have begun negotiations for a proposed merger. On 16 September 2022, the merger was officially abandoned due to the conditions ordered by the antitrust French authorities. Some of its channels were affected by an outage on 19 July 2024.

Operations

* Studio TF1 - Paris-based TV production company ** Capa Drama, French banners ** Telfrance, French banners ** Nimbus, Denmark ** Tuvalu, Netherlands **Pupkin, Netherlands **De Mensen, Belgium ** BlueSpirit, Canadian animation company ** Reel One, Canadian production outfit

Streaming service

* Salto from 2020 to 2023, with

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 ...

and Groupe M6 * TF1+

Television

Free-to-air

, channel 1 * TMC, channel 10 * TFX (launched in 2005 as NT1), channel 11 *

TF1 Séries Films TF1 Séries Films, formerly HD1 (acronym for ''Histoire de'') is a French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group. HD1 launched on TNT, satellite, and xDSL on 12 December 2012. History Proposed new TNT channels With the shutdown of analogue telev ...

(launched in 2012 as HD1), channel 20 * LCI - ''La Chaîne Info'' (launched in 1994), channel 15

Pay

TV Breizh TV Breizh (''Breizh'' is Breton for ''Brittany'') is a French pay television channel owned by Groupe TF1, which was initially set as a regional station for the Brittany region. History Context of its creation At local level, the city of Lorie ...

(launched in 2000) *TF1 International, TF1's international channel *

Histoire TV Histoire TV is a French television channel, owned by Groupe TF1. The network mainly carries programming about human history, historical events. History Histoire was launched on 14 July 1997 by an alliance of public holdings (France Télévision ...

(launched in 1997) *

Ushuaïa TV Ushuaïa TV is a French television channel, owned by Groupe TF1. The network carries programming about nature. History Ushuaïa TV was launched on 14 March 2005 by Groupe TF1, inspired by the TF1 popular show Ushuaïa Nature. Ushuaïa TV ...

(launched in 2005) * Série Club - 50% stake with Groupe M6

Former

*JET *Tfou TV *Stylia (ex-''Odyssée'' launched in 1996, closed in 2014) - 80% stake * TF6 (closed in 2014) - 50% stake TF1 also had stakes in

France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned publicly funded international news television network based in Paris. Its channels, broadcast in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb ...

, Pink TV,

and AB Groupe which were divested.

Online news site

TF1 INFO (current brand launched on 24 January 2022) brings together information provided by

and LCI newscast editions.

Other assets

The firm holds a number of other interests in the

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

and

publishing Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

fields, including Aufeminin and 34% of

Metro International Metro International is a Swedish media company based in Luxembourg that publishes the freesheet newspaper ''Metro''. The company was founded by Per Andersson, and started as a subsidiary of the Modern Times Group along with Viasat Broadcast ...

's operations in France.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tf1 Group Pan-European media companies Television networks in France French-language television networks Companies listed on Euronext Paris Television channels and stations established in 1975 French companies established in 1975 Companies based in Île-de-France Television companies of France TF1 Group Bouygues