TF1

**TF1** (standing for **Télévision Française 1**) is a French free-to-air television channel owned by TF1 Group, which is controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network.

TF1 is part of the TF1 Group of mass media companies, which also includes the news channel LCI. It used to own the satellite TV provider TPS, which have been sold to the Canal+ Group.

The network 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 terrestrial TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface.

On May 20, 2021, it was announced that TF1 Group, owners of the channel, has proposed a merger with Groupe M6, which owns M6.

## History

It was the only television channel in France for 28 years, and has often changed its name since the creation of Radio-PTT Vision on 26 April 1935, making it one of the oldest television stations in the world, and one of the very few **prewar television stations** to remain in existence to the present day. It became RN Télévision in 1937, Fernsehsender Paris (**Paris Television**) during German occupation in 1943, RDF Télévision française in 1944, RTF Télévision in 1949, la Première chaîne de la RTF in 1963 following the creation of the second channel, la Première chaîne de l'ORTF in 1964 and finally, Télévision Française 1 in 1975.

### Radio-PTT Vision (1935–1937)

Radio-PTT Vision began operations on 26 April 1935 as the first television station in France, using a 30-line mechanical television system based on the Nipkow disk. It was operated by the French PTT agency with a transmitter located atop the Eiffel Tower, and was on air three days a week from 11 am to 11:30 am and 8 pm to 8:30 pm and on Sundays from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. On 4 January 1937, the broadcasting hours were changed such that television programmes were aired from 5 pm until 10 pm on Wednesdays to Fridays, and from 4 pm to 8:30 pm or 9 pm on Saturdays to Tuesdays.

### Radiodiffusion nationale Télévision (1937–1939)

Following successful trials of a "high-definition" 455-line electronic television system designed by Thomson-Houston which improved on the 405-line system originally designed by EMI-Marconi, Radio-PTT Vision renamed itself as Radiodiffusion nationale Télévision (RN Télévision) in July 1937. However, broadcasts using the Nipkow disk system continued alongside the new electronic system until 10 April 1938. In July 1938, a decree of the French PTT agency fixed the French terrestrial television standard as transmitting on 455 lines VHF (*46 MHz, positive modulation, 25 frames per second*), to be adopted throughout France within three years. The adoption of the electronic standard marked the end of mechanical television in France, and the advent of electronic television to obtain much better image quality. RN Télévision abruptly stopped broadcasts on 3 September 1939 following the entry of France into the Second World War.

### Fernsehsender Paris (1943–1944)

Television broadcasts resumed in occupied France on 7 May 1943 as Fernsehsender Paris, under the control of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. It was on air in German and French four days a week from 10 am to noon, three days a week from 3 pm to 8 pm and every evening from 8:30 pm to 10 pm. Fernsehsender Paris stopped broadcasts on 12 August 1944, one week before the liberation of Paris.

### RTF Télévision (1949–1964)

*Radiodiffusion française* was renamed as *Radiodiffusion-télévision française* (RTF) on 9 February 1949, and thus began the growth of television as an accepted mass medium in France. On 29 May 1949, the first news programme aired on RTF TV, and on 30 July 1949 a television licence fee was introduced. Residents living outside Paris could view RTF TV for the first time in February 1952 when Télé Lille (now known as France 3 Nord-Pas-de-Calais), a regional broadcaster operating since 10 April 1950, was co-opted into the RTF TV network and became RTF's first relay outside Paris.

### Première chaîne de l'ORTF (1964–1975)

Following the creation of *RTF Télévision 2* (now France 2) in 1963, the first channel was renamed as *Première chaîne de la RTF* (First Channel of the RTF), which was renamed as *Première chaîne de l'ORTF* (First Channel of the ORTF) when the ORTF was created on 25 July 1964. This period marked the introduction of commercial advertising on *Première chaîne de l'ORTF* which began on 1 October 1968. On 8 January 1969, the ORTF created a subsidiary company called *Régie française de publicité* (RFP) to handle all advertising on the ORTF channels.

### TF1 (since 1975)

TF1 (which originally stood for *Télévision Française 1* (French Television 1)) was created on 1 January 1975 when law 74-696 7 August 1974 (which split the ORTF into 7 organisations) came into effect, and the rebranding from *Première chaîne de l'ORTF* to TF1 came into effect on 6 January 1975. A new multicoloured logo for TF1 created by Catherine Chaillet came out that same year along with cel-animated idents, and from 1976 until 1985, analogue computer-generated idents produced using the Scanimate system were used on TF1, created by the American company Robert Abel and Associates with background music composed by Vladimir Cosma. The ***1975 TF1 logo*** was later modified in 1984 and again in 1987. Colour television was first introduced to TF1 on 1 September 1975 when FR3 (now France•3) agreed to supply some of its colour programming to TF1, and the conversion to colour on TF1 was completed in 1977. Since TF1's privatisation in April 1987, the abbreviation is no longer expanded, so as to avoid confusion with the government-owned television broadcaster France Télévisions. TF1's current logo was unveiled on 2 February 1990, replacing the old logo. The channel was also broadcast in Italy alongside La Chaîne Info on digital terrestrial television from 2004 to December 2006 on *Dfree* multiplex. In 2005, TF1 launched TF1Vision, a video on demand service.

## Programmes

### General

* *Le Journal* at 13:00 and 20:00 - most broadcast TV news of Europe.
* *Qui veut gagner des millions?*
* *Ninja Warrior*
* *The Voice*
* *Koh-Lanta*
* *Demain Nous Appartient* ( Tomorrow is Ours) and *Ici Tout Commence*
* *Section de Recherches*
* *Mask Singer*
* *Danse avec les stars (Strictly Come Dancing)*
* *Vendredi tout est permis*

#### Children's television series

* *Abby Hatcher*
* *Gazoon*
* *Kikoumba: Crown Down*
* *Marcus Level*
* *Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir*
* *PAW Patrol* (Paw Patrol, La pat'trouille)
* *Super Wings*
* *The Toy Castle* (Le Château magique)
* *Totally Spies!*

### Sports

#### Multi-sporting events

* Olympic Games
* Paralympic Games

#### Association football

* FIFA
	+ FIFA Men's World Cup
		- Finals (selected matches (including all France team matches (if qualified)), co-licensed with beIN Sports)
		- Qualifiers (up to five France matches only (other France matches live on M6), other matches not involving France team live on TFX, TMC, W9 and L'Equipe)
	+ FIFA Women's World Cup (selected matches at the finals tournament only, co-licensed with Canal+)
* UEFA
	+ Men's
		- UEFA European Championship
			* Finals (selected matches, shared with M6 and co-licensed with beIN Sports)
			* Qualifiers (four first pick France matches only, in September 2019 aired a second pick (four second pick and one first pick live on M6), other matches not involving France live on TFX, TMC, W9 , and L'Equipe)
		- UEFA Nations League (France away matches only in 2018-19 (home matches live on M6), other matches not involving France live on TFX-TMC-W9 (including Finals) and L'Equipe (group stage only))
		- UEFA Champions League (final only, returned again in 2019–20 until 2023–24, licensed from RMC Sport (2020 and 2021) and Canal+-beIN Sports (2022 until 2024))
	+ Women's
		- UEFA European Championship (selected matches at the finals tournament only, co-licensed with Canal+)
* France national football team (selected Nations League, qualifiers, and friendlies, other matches live on M6, in 2019 one friendly match live on TMC

#### Rugby

* Rugby World Cup (shared with TMC in 2019)

#### Handball

* IHF Men's and Women's World Championships (France matches at the finals tournament only (if qualified) until 2025, licensed from beIN Sports)
* EHF Men's and Women's European Championships (France matches at the finals tournament only (if qualified) until 2024, licensed from beIN Sports)

#### Gridiron football

* National Football League (Super Bowl only from 2019, licensed from beIN Sports)

#### Motorsport

* Formula One (three races only (including French GP) until 2020 with Monaco GP live on TMC, licensed from Canal+)

#### Ice hockey

* Ice Hockey World Championships - Canal+ some matches on TMC and M6.

## Criticism

Some commentators accuse TF1 of being an excessively populist, commercialised channel. There is a clear emphasis on "light" entertainment programmes over more serious content, and the channel's success is sometimes seen as being founded on the *ménagères de moins de 50 ans* (housewives under 50) audience segment. A large proportion of the schedule consists of gameshows, sensational documentaries and dubbed versions of TV series. The channel's news service is perceived as consisting of more celebrity news and human-interest stories than its public-sector competitors.

On 16 April 2009, the employee responsible for the "Web innovation" department was fired for criticizing the HADOPI law in a private email sent to a Member of Parliament. The management of TF1 was notified about the e-mail by the Ministry for Culture and Communication, whom Ministry Christine Albanel is also one of the authors of the HADOPI law.

In 2004, Patrick Le Lay, CEO of TF1 made the following statement about the channel's aims:

> There are many ways to speak about TV, but in a business perspective, let's be realistic: at the basis, TF1's job is helping Coca-Cola, for example, to sell its product. What we sell to Coca-Cola is available human brain time. Nothing is more difficult than obtaining this availability. This is where permanent change is located. We must always look out for popular programs, follow trends, surf on tendencies, in a context in which information is speeding up, getting manifold and trivialized.
>
>

Critics of TF1 also contend that its news coverage is slanted towards supporting right-wing politicians – they were in particular accused of supporting Édouard Balladur in the 1995 presidential elections, and of overstating crime during the 2002 electoral campaign to tilt the balance in favour of former French president Jacques Chirac, who campaigned on a law and order platform.

Key figures within TF1 are close friends to some of the most powerful politicians in France, and the relationship between Bouygues and the public-sector contracting system often raises suspicions. Immigration and violence are arguably conflated in the channel's news programmes. In addition, it is occasionally alleged that news reports from TF1 tend to ignore issues yielding a bad light on their parent group (Bouygues), while stressing the problems of competitors (such as Vinci SA).

Such criticism was heavy in the satirical show *Les Guignols de l'info*, broadcast on rival network Canal+. However, TF1 now competes in this category with M6, which was initially a generalist channel focusing on musical programmes, but now has programming more resembling TF1 (notably, reality shows that TF1 started running just after M6 introduced them).

## Trivia

* TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network.
* TF1 has used the 1989 (1993) and 2000 jingle transitions from Welcome Back 1993 and Welcome Back 2000, slightly becoming remastered, Just like the *jingle sound*.
* TF1 is to shutter its video-on-demand service MyTF1. The French commercial broadcaster is planning to close the store by the end of July and is said to be in talks with Canal Plus to take on the rights to the content, some of which extends beyond the proposed closure date.
* The France Télévisions group has announced that it will divest its interest in SVOD service Salto should the merger of TF1 and M6 Group be completed.

## See also

* List of television stations in France
* TF1 Tower

## Related articles

* TV7 Bordeaux
* 6ter
* TV Nova (Czech commercial television station)

## References

1. ↑ https://www.exchangewire.com/blog/2021/05/20/tf1-m6-propose-merger-vungle-acquires-tresensa/
2. ↑ "THE TF1 AND CANAL+ GROUPS ACQUIRE BROADCASTING RIGHTS TO THE UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2021 TOURNAMENT". *TF1 Group*. 4 October 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
3. ↑ "TF1 GROUP AND BEIN SPORTS REACH AGREEMENT ON BROADCASTING THE IHF WORLD HANDBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS". *TF1 Group*. 22 November 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
4. ↑ "TF1 GROUP AND BEIN SPORTS TO BROADCAST EHF EUROPEAN HANDBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS". *TF1 Group*. 28 November 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
5. ↑ "TF1 GROUP SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE (NFL) TO BROADCAST THE SUPER BOWL". *TF1 Group*. 25 October 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
6. ↑ In France, Fired For Writing To MP Against 3 Strikes - Slashdot
7. ↑ Hadopi: Amendment 138, A Dismissal for Dissent, and More Letters « kNOw Future Inc
8. ↑ TV Exec Fired for Opposing Anti-Piracy law | TorrentFreak
9. ↑ Patrick Le Lay, in *Les dirigeants français et le changement*, 2004, ISBN 2-914119-33-X. French quote: « Il y a beaucoup de façons de parler de la télévision, mais dans une perspective business, soyons réaliste: à la base, le métier de TF1, c'est d'aider Coca-Cola, par exemple, à vendre son produit. Ce que nous vendons à Coca-Cola, c'est du temps de cerveau humain disponible. Rien n’est plus difficile que d’obtenir cette disponibilité. C’est là que se trouve le changement permanent. Il faut chercher en permanence les programmes qui marchent, suivre les modes, surfer sur les tendances, dans un contexte où l’information s’accélère, se multiplie et se banalise. »