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. All programming, and especially news broadcasts, were under strict control of the national government.

Post World War II

A public monopoly on broadcasting in France had been established with the formation of Radiodiffusion Française in 1945. RDF was renamed Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française in 1949 and replaced by the ORTF in 1964.
In 1970, during a press conference, Georges Pompidou, initiated a will to modernize affirming that information to the ORTF must be free, independent and impartial, while stressing that it remains "the voice of France whether we like it or not. "
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 from neighbouring countries, such as Radio Monte Carlo from Monaco, Radio Luxembourg from Luxembourg, and Europe 1 from Germany.

French broadcasting revolution

On December 31, 1974, the ORTF split in 5, leaving 7 successor institutions:
In 1950 the ORTF's predecessor, RTF, had been one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union. Upon the break-up of the ORTF in 1974, French membership of the EBU was transferred to the transmission company TDF, while TF1 became a second French active member. A2, FR3, and SRF became supplementary active members before eventually becoming full members in 1982. In 1983 the French public broadcasters' membership was transferred to a joint organisation, the Organisme français de radiodiffusion et de télévision . Nine years later, the OFRT was succeeded by the Groupement des Radiodiffuseurs Français de l’UER which currently holds one of the French memberships of the EBU.