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France |
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 TF1
National channel - now entirely advertising funded.
TF1 has the distinction of being (we believe) the only
national flagship channel to be privatised in western Europe.
The station was sold off in order to raise money - but there
is still disquiet in France to this day over the decision.
If you would choose to imagine it, the privatisation of TF1
was akin to BBC1 (and not BBC2 or BBC Radio) being sold to The
Daily Telegraph or TrinityMirror. |
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Antenne
2 (later France 2)
National channel - Licence fee &
advertising
We start at Christmas 1990, with a very polished ident and
announcer from the French second channel... |
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...and flash back to 1986 and a less polished, and, to UK
eyes, very avant guarde style for the channel. |
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She's changed clothes and background colour, but the announcer
is doing a double shift today, presenting daytime programmes
(above) and closing down the station (left). Only the
earrings remain the same. |
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The French are very protective of their culture, but the
ravages of the 1980s could not be escaped no matter how hard
you tried to do so. Miami Vice, tonight at 8.35pm. |
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The news at midday on one side and a closedown in progress on
the other. All in pastel shades. |
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 A
stylish change for modern presentation, as seen by this menu,
breakbumper out and breakbumper in from 2002 - time and tide
having waited for no one, A2 is now France2. |
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FR3 (later France 3)
Regional channel - Licence fee &
advertising |
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Let's
start by bringing FR3 on air with a still caption of the '3'
symbol and an odd tuning signal. |
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After a fast-moving 3D ident, it's time to look at what's
happening on Wednesday evening on FR3. The answer
appears to be 'nasty French singers' but it could be 'nasty
French variety'. |
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The nastiness continues with a Scandinavian-style standard
promotional style, this time advertising that awful British
export, 'Benny Hill'. Well, it was the 1980s, a decade
that taste forgot. |
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A different style of promo, this one features a jigsaw of '3'
symbols splitting apart to reveal the programme excerpt
underneath - in this case, alternative dance. |
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A look at the regions themselves in the final programme before
closedown. |
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RTF (later became TF1)
National channel - Licence fee &
limited state advertising |
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Gallic fashions and design in the 1960s, as RTF celebrates the
move in to colour 625 to replace b&w 819. |
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RTF2 (later became A2)
National channel - Licence fee.
The design style of RTF2 is very interesting. Despite
the unusual Gallic twist to the actual layout, this ident is
surprisingly similar to Rediffusion London and BBC2. All
three were launched in the same month in 1964. |
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Canal+
Pay-TV channel
Later to become a suite of channels and eventually an entire
platform (much like Sky in the UK) in the Netherlands, Spain
and France itself, Canal+ had more modest beginnings as a
terrestrial pay-TV channel, taking the UHF frequencies
formerly used by the defunct La Cinq commercial channel. |
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La Cinq
Private national channel
Whilst some countries spent years arguing over whether to
introduce commercial television, those whose state channels
had carried adverts for a long time debated the possible
introduction of private, unregulated television. In
France, this meant the populist La Cinq. The channel
didn't prosper and eventually went bankrupt. |
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