French TV

On Tuesday, it'll be 40 years since France's ORTF ceased operations and was divided into different companies. TF1, Antenne 2 and FR3 all launched on the 6th of January, 1975.

The INA (or National Audiovisual Institute) has posted a bunch of nice retrospectives with clips from the launches and subsequent developments.

TF1: http://www.ina.fr/contenus-editoriaux/articles-editoriaux/tf1-40-ans
Antenne 2: http://www.ina.fr/contenus-editoriaux/articles-editoriaux/antenne-2-40-ans
FR3: http://www.ina.fr/contenus-editoriaux/articles-editoriaux/fr3-40-ans
Radio France: http://www.ina.fr/contenus-editoriaux/articles-editoriaux/radio-france-40-ans
INA: http://www.ina.fr/contenus-editoriaux/articles-editoriaux/ina-40-ans

Obviously, it's all in French but Google Translate can help with the descriptions.

Often thought that the Graphics designers for all three, had all got together after a holiday to Haight-Ashbury and had a meal with les champignons magiques high on the menu before setting about their task.

Sixties hangovers most definitely.

Here is a TV news report about the new companies; it aired the day before the switch-over:
http://www.ina.fr/video/CAF91014480/les-nouvelles-societes-video.html

And from the same day, one last look behind the scenes of the ORTF's soon-to-be-overhauled news division: http://www.ina.fr/video/CAF91012923/les-hommes-presses-de-24-heures-sur-la-une-video.html

Very interesting, thank you. A number of BBC shows in the penultimate link, I spotted Rolf Harris and Blue Peter at least. Hadn't realised French television showed those sort of programmes - presumably they were dubbed?

Yes, French television has always bought British programs (and shown them dubbed). Here is a quote from Timothy Green's 1972 book The Universal Eye: World Television in the Seventies:

"The French hold their foreign buying down to 13 percent of their output (about the same proportion as the British), of which three quarters comes from the United States and most of the remainder from Britain -- both The Saint and The Avengers (Chapeau Melon et Bottes de Cuir) have been very successful."

Of course, the proportion of foreign programming on French TV is much higher nowadays.

TF1 and M6 seem to have more US programming, while France 2, 3 and 5 (France Televisions) have more home content, being the PSB provider.

That's one of the things I like the least about the old heavily regulated TV landscape, the aversion politicians and other decision makers had towards imported programming.

American shows were obviously seen as the essence of depravity, but even British or European imports were regarded as something that should be avoided as they were perceived as threats to homegrown production.

I don't know if it's still the case, but I recall French music radio stations have to play a quota of French language music to preserve the language.

Yes, last time I was there it seemed to be every other record !!

Here is a TV news report from the day when the breakup of the ORTF was announced in 1974 -- it includes a brief look back at the history of the ORTF:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp1oHHaNEk8

Here is a pre-breakup ident for the ORTF's Second Network:



And here is the post-breakup startup animation for the new Antenne 2 network, designed by the well-known Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon:



BTW, these English-language books cover the breakup of the ORTF:

The Media in France by Raymond Kuhn (Routledge, 1995)
Broadcasting and Democracy in France by Ruth Thomas (Bradford University Press, 1976, or Temple University Press, 1977)

For a description of French TV in the ORTF era, check out:

The Universal Eye: World Television in the Seventies by Timothy Green (Bodley Head, 1972)

That's because the quota is set at 40% (or 35%, according to some sources). However, there is a major campaign underway to have it abolished.

BTW, the pre-breakup look of the ORTF's Third Network...



...was designed by the same person, Catherine Chaillet, who went on to design these even more "psychedelic" TF1 sequences:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvJt-xMRxRU

They were replaced in 1976 by a different design:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGZnZmbN_RQ

However, Chaillet's psychedelic design lived on in TF1's news intros: