The story
Founded by Catherine Tasca and Jack Lang on Sep 7, 1992.1
From 1964 to 1975, French radio and television was monopolised through an organisation known as the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française. In an effort to stimulate competition, the organisation was split in 1975 so that France's three television channels—TF1, Antenne 2, and FR3, would still be owned by the French government, but be operated independently from each other. However, the sale of TF1 to Bouygues in 1987 and increased competition from other new private broadcasters (such as Canal+ and La Cinq, the latter having been replaced by public channel La Cinquième after it ceased transmissions in April 1992) led to a decline in viewership for the two remaining public channels, which lost 30%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. 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 was absorbed by France Télévisions. Beginning in 2008, the President of France took the duty of naming the presidents for the French public broadcasters; they were previously nominated by the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel. 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 Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel.
Okoo was launched on 9 December 2019 as the new children's television brand of France Télévisions, consisting of a programming block on France 3, France 4 and France 5 and a digital platform on France.tv. This new brand was considered for replacing France 4. Programming and content for teens and young adults would be moved to the new digital offer France.tv Slash.
End of France 4 and France Ô
France 4 and France Ô were threatened with closure as early as 2018, while President Macron had announced that they would be kept during the 2017 presidential elections. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, France 4 transformed into a giant classroom by offering courses of all levels. Then, seeing this interest from 3–17-year olds, France 4, after the lockdown, transformed into a youth channel, offering cartoons all day long, like Gulli. As a result, it was decided to keep it, while France Ô closed down in August 2020. A few months later, its former EPG position, channel 19, was taken over by Culturebox, a channel focused on entertainment financed by France Télévisions, which would eventually go on channel 14, as an evening programming block on France 4. On 6 June 2025, France 4 took over Canal+'s EPG position, channel 4, while the Culturebox name was removed, but some of its programming remain broadcast on France 4.
On 1 January 2022, France’s audiovisual regulator changed institutional form when the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA) and the Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des œuvres et la protection des droits sur Internet (Hadopi) were merged into a single authority: the Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (ARCOM).
ARCOM retained the CSA’s powers regarding the governance of French public service media. In particular, Article 47-4 of the Law of 30 September 1986 provides that ARCOM appoints (for fixed terms) the presidents of France Télévisions, Radio France and the company responsible for France’s external public broadcasting (France Médias Monde).
From Wikipedia’s article on France Télévisions, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5