The story
The service was first established in 1954 as the Radiodiffusion de la France Outre-Mer (RFOM). It was renamed a year later as the Société de radiodiffusion de la France d'outre-mer (SORAFOM).
This was replaced in 1964, following the creation of the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française, by the Office de coopération radiophonique (OCORA).
In August 1974, OCORA became a part of the reformulated FR3: a network of regional television stations in mainland France. FR3's overseas operations were known as FR3 DOM-TOM and, unlike the arrangement in metropolitan France, were in charge of both television and radio.
In December 1982, France's overseas broadcasting operations were removed from FR3 and invested in the current organization, the Société de Radiodiffusion et de télévision Française pour l'Outre-mer (RFO).
In July 2004, Réseau France Outre-mer (RFO) was reunited with the French mainland's public broadcasters when it was merged into the France Télévisions network.
On 30 November 2010, Réseau France Outre-mer was renamed Réseau Outre-Mer 1ère. In 2018, the name was changed to La Première, prefixed with the region name, to resolve a trademark concern from Groupe M6 over possible confusion with its channel Paris Première.
On 15 January 2020, France Télévisions channels and Arte switched to high definition (HD) on satellite in overseas territories (except in New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna). Starting in September 2020, and following the release of frequencies operated by France Ô after its shutdown in August 2020, channels from the network can switch to HD on digital terrestrial television (DTT). Since January 2022, all television services from the network have been broadcast in HD on DTT and satellite.
In January 2024, Outre-mer La Première was chosen by the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication to be the operator of the ROMU overseas DTT multiplex, broadcasting France 2 in ultra-high-definition quality.
From Wikipedia’s article on La Première (French TV network), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4