France 4

**France 4** is a French public channel owned by France Télévisions, dedicated to entertainment. Launched as Festival, the channel took its current name in 2005, to match that of the other France Télévisions channels. The colour of **France 4** is purple. It is accessible on French DTT (Télévision Numérique Terrestre (TNT)), on cable, on satellite and on IPTV.

## History of the channel

### Festival (1996-2005)

On 24 June 1996, France Télévision (without *s*) dashes into the adventure of thematic channels to feed the new satellite bouquet TPS and the group of which is a shareholder in 25%.
For that purpose, it creates Festival, a public thematic channel spread on the satellite then resumed on cable networks, which proposes prestigious movies of cinema and television, mythical works having made the quality of the television in the noble size of the length-measurement, the legends and the TV - novels.
Festival is an excellent solution for France Télévision and ARTE France because she allows both groups, which enormously invested in the French quality fiction for France 2, France 3 and ARTE, to offer a second life to their productions without suffering from the competition and to satisfy a real wait of the televiewers of the moment. The genre not being however stretchable in the infinity, the programs fall fast in the repeat broadcast.

### The difficult birth of France 4 (2001-2005)

In 2001, while the French DTT is only in the state of project in France, the socialist government of Lionel Jospin asks to the president of France Télévisions to think about a project of bouquet of public channels broadcasted on the French DTT, so that the public utility holds a place of choice in this project. The power sees in the DTT the technical revolution for which he waited for a long time to develop and rebalance the weight of the public channel worsened further to the privatization of TF1 in 1987. France Télévisions proposes then the creation of three new channels: France 1, France 4 and France 6, is an all-news channel, a channel dedicated to regions and a channel of repeat broadcast of the programs of France 2 and France 3 in moved schedules. Meanwhile, the power changed edge and the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin revises the propositions downwards in a budgetary rigorous context.

The public television will have four channels on the DTT besides France 2 and France 3, but three of them will be occupied by already existing chains(channels): France 5 spread 24 hours a day, Arte 24 hours a day too and La Chaîne Parlementaire. France Télévisions thus has only a channel to propose a channel. For lack of support and of credits, the group eventually proposes Festival and asks to Philippe Chazal, his Chief Executive Officer, to think about a new more attractive railing. On October 23, 2002, the CSA (FRENCH BROADCASTING AUTHORITY) holds Festival to appear on the public multiplex of the DTT. Having almost to be called France 8 or France Prime, the channel is finally renamed France 4, joining the series of the declensions of France Télévisions, by skipping into a place still not occupied between France 3 and France 5. She proposes a new rather similar railing of that of France Supervision: The entertainment, the sport, the fiction, the cinema and the series. To amuse, to create the event, make discover, fascinate, such are the main objectives of this new channel. France 4 also airs children's shows such as *Teen Titans Go!*, *Baby Potter: The Series*, *Baby Backyardigans*, *Dark Knights*, *Puyo Puyo*, *The Universe Stops with You*, *Pablo the Little Penguin: The Series*, *What's New, Angels?*, *The ZhuZhus* and *The Adventures of Roco & Abyss*.

### Some information since 2005

Since July 2009, France 4 began broadcasting in 16:9. Since 6 October 2011, France 4 is available in high definition.

## Share

### Slogans

* 1996: "La chaîne des films de prestige" (The channel for prestigious movies)
* 2005: "Le plaisir avant tout" (Pleasure above all)
* 2011: "Elle n'a pas fini de vous surprendre" (It didn't finish surprizing you)
* 2011: "Stimulant sans arômes artificiels" (Stimulant without artificial flavors)
* October 2012: "L'esprit positif" (Positive spirit)