Abstract
The history of the French television goes back to the 1930s, when the first channel was launched (Radio PTT-Vision), and France introduced television as the 4th country in the world to have television. The first channels in France were its state channels. The Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF) was the national agency in charge, between 1964 and 1974, with providing public radio and television systems in France. The introduction of private channels in 1984 and the privatisation of TF1 in 1987, led to a real boom of TV channels, and brought with it, a very competititive environment. Today, there are hundreds of TV channels in France. The cable and satellite systems are well developed. The most important TV channel in France is TF1. TF1 is a private French TV network, controlled by the TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's market share makes it the most popular domestic network. The second biggest TV channel group in France is France Televisions. France Télévisions is the French public national television broadcaster. It is funded mostly by television licences and advertising. Because of France's geographical and cultural diversity, local and regional programms are broadcasted in France by the oversea departments and France Televisions. Apart from these two major media groups, another media group that should be mentioned is Metropole Television. Their channel, M6's current on-air image suggests that it provides its service to adolescent and young-adult demographics. Finally, there is Canal channel, a premium pay television channel launched in 1984. France also takes part in international TV projects such as TV5 (together with Belgium, Switzerland and Canada), the global television network in French language or Arte (together with Germany), a channel dedicated to cultural programmes.
