Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
national public broadcasting
Public broadcasting
Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing.Public broadcasting may be...
organization established on 9 February 1949 to replace the post-war "Radiodiffusion Française" (RDF), which had been founded in 1945. It was replaced in its turn, on 26 June 1964, by the notionally less-strictly government controlled Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française
Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française
The Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1974, with providing public radio and television in France.-Post World War II:...
(ORTF), which itself lasted until the end of 1974.
RTF was both state-owned and state-controlled. With a budget set by the French National Assembly
French National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....
under the direction of the Ministry of Information
Ministry of Information
The term Ministry of Information may refer to the following:* Ministry of Information , part of the Cabinet of Egypt* Ministry of Information , part of the Cabinet of Equatorial Guinea...
, all of its spending and investment plans had to be directly agreed by the Minister of Information and the Minister of Finance.
Alain Peyrefitte
Alain Peyrefitte
Alain Peyrefitte was a French scholar and politician.He was a confidant of Charles De Gaulle and had a long career in public service, serving as a diplomat in Germany and Poland....
, Minister of Information, speaking in a debate in the National Assembly on 26 May 1964, described RTF as "the government in every Frenchman's dining-room" – La RTF, c'est le gouvernement dans la salle à manger de chaque Français.
History
A public monopoly on broadcasting in France had been established with the formation of Radiodiffusion Française (RDF) in 1945. RDF was renamed "Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française" (RTF) in 1949 and ORTF in 1964.From the beginning, the public broadcaster experienced fierce competition from the "peripheral stations": French-speaking stations aimed at the French public but transmitting on longwave
Longwave
In radio, longwave refers to parts of radio spectrum with relatively long wavelengths. The term is a historic one dating from the early 20th century, when the radio spectrum was considered to consist of long, medium and short wavelengths...
from neighbouring countries, such as Radio Monte Carlo
Radio Monte Carlo
Radio Monte Carlo is the name of six radio stations owned and managed by three different entities:*RMC Info is a French-speaking station, broadcasting in France and Monaco from Paris with some contributions from Monaco. Radio Monte-Carlo was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the...
(RMC) from Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
, Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (French)
Radio Luxembourg - 1933-1939 and 1951- is the name of a Long Wave commercial radio station that began broadcasting from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 1933 as a daytime and evening service in the French language from Monday to Saturday and until 12 Noon on Sundays.The station closed down at the...
(later RTL
RTL Group
RTL Group is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company, and is majority-owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. It has 45 television and 32 radio stations in 11 countries...
) from Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, and Europe 1
Europe 1
Europe 1, formerly known as Europe n° 1, is a privately owned radio network created in 1955. It is one of the leading French radio broadcasters and heard throughout France...
from Germany (exceptionally, in 1974, RMC was allowed to set up a transmitter on French territory).
Offices
RTF's head offices were located in the avenue de Friedland in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Its television studios and technical buildings were at 13-15 rue Cognacq-Jay.Channels
By the start of the 1960s, the RTF had established five radio and two television channels:Radio
- France I (later France InterFrance InterFrance Inter is a major French public radio channel and part of Radio France. It is a "generalist" station, aiming to provide a wide national audience with a full service of news and intelligent spoken-word programming, both serious and entertaining, liberally punctuated with an eclectic mix of...
) on long wave - France II (regional programmes, closed on 8 December 1963 and replaced by Inter Variétés – a variation of France Inter for older listeners) on high-power medium-wave transmitters
- France III (later France CultureFrance CultureFrance Culture is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France. Its programming encompasses a wide variety of features on historical, philosophical, sociopolitical, and scientific themes , as well as literary readings, radio plays, and experimental productions...
) on low-power medium-wave transmitters - France IV (later France MusiqueFrance MusiqueFrance Musique is a French public radio station devoted to music, including classical music and jazz. France Musique was created in 1954 as Chaîne Haute-Fidélité then renamed 1958 as France IV Haute Fidélité, then RTF Haute Fidélité in 1963, and finally France Musique in same year...
) on FMFM broadcastingFM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
only - France V (formerly Radio Alger, a name which it was to resume on 5 July 1962 when it ceased to be part of RTF following the independence of AlgeriaAlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
)
Television
- La première chaîne ("The First Channel"), broadcast in black and white from 25 July 1948 on VHF 819 lines, and until 3 January 1956 on 441 lines441 lines441 lines, or 383i if named using modern standard, is an early electronic television system. It was used with 50 interlaced frames per second in France and Germany, where it was an improvement over the previous 180 lines system...
. For a period, experimental 625-line transmissions (test cards) in colour using the French SECAMSECAMSECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
system (see below) were made on the channel's VHF network each Tuesday morning. - La deuxième chaîne ("The Second Channel"), created on 21 December 1963 and broadcast on UHF 625 lines, initially in black and white only. Colour transmissions in SECAMSECAMSECAM, also written SÉCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
were introduced (on this channel only) on 1 October 1967.
Regional television
Regional television, for areas outside Paris, was slow to develop compared with the situation in the United States of America and the United Kingdom.The first regional station, known as Télé-Lille, began broadcasting on 10 April 1950 with two hours a day of programming for Lille
Lille
Lille is a city in northern France . It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the country behind those of Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Lille is situated on the Deûle River, near France's border with Belgium...
and its surrounding area. The station's main news programme was called Images du Nord ("Images of the North"). Télé-Lille's signal did not stop at the country's borders, with the result that the station had five times more viewers in the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
provinces of West Flanders, East Flanders
East Flanders
East Flanders is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Netherlands and in Belgium on the provinces of Antwerp, Flemish Brabant , of Hainaut and of West Flanders...
, and Hainaut than it had in northern France. By February 1952, the establishment of a co-axial link with the RTF's studios in Paris meant that Télé-Lille, when not televising its own programmes, could relay RTF's main Paris-originated programming.
In an attempt to counter the spread in Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
of the viewing of programmes from regional television in the neighbouring German Land
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
– the inhabitants of Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
had, for example, been able to watch the coronation in June 1953 of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom only on West German television – Télé-Strasbourg began broadcasting on 15 October 1953.
Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
followed on 20 September 1954, Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
on 8 November 1954, Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
in August 1961, Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
on 25 January 1962, and most other regional centres opened shortly thereafter.
From late 1963, the regional programmes were also broadcast on La deuxième chaîne by using optical standard conversion in the regional centres (a 625 lines camera aimed to a 819 lines monitor with a special CRT) in order to better adapt the regional coverage to the new "regions" created in France, and they remained even after the opening of La troisième chaîne (The Third Channel) under the ORTF on December 31, 1972, all three networks broadcasting the regional news, sometimes from two or even three different production centres (e.g. Niort broadcasting Poitiers on networks 1 and 3, and Nantes on network 2).
Directors
The directors of the RTF were directly appointed by the Minister of Information.Directors-general:
- Wladimir Porché : 09/02/1949 - 01/02/1957
- Gabriel Delaunay : 01/02/1957 - 07/1958
- Christian Chavanon : 07/1958 - 21/03/1960
- Raoul Ergman : 21/03/1960 - 02/1962
- Robert Bordaz : 02/1962 - 23/07/1964
Assistant directors-general:
- Raymond JanotRaymond JanotRaymond Janot was a French politician who played a significant role in the writing of the 1958 Constitution of France....
: 21/03/1960 - 02/1962
Directors of programmes, television:
- Jean Luc : 04/1949 - 02/1951
- Jean Arnaud : 02/1951 - 06/1952
- Jean d'Arcy : 06/1952 - 10/1959
- Albert Ollivier : 10/1959 - 23/07/1964
Directors of news:
- Louis Terrenoire : 07/07/1958 - 11/1958
- Albert Ollivier : 11/1958 - 06/1961
- André-Marie Gérard : 06/1961 - 04/1963
Directors of news (television):
- Raymond Marcillac : 04/1963
Directors of sport:
- Raymond Marcillac : 12/09/1958