Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française

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Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF – French Radio and Television Broadcasting) was the French national public broadcasting company established on 9 February 1949 to replace the post-war Radiodiffusion Française (RDF), which had been founded in 1945. It was to be replaced in its turn, on 26 June 1964, by the notionally less-strictly government controlled Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF), which was to last until the end of 1974.

RTF was both state-owned and state-controlled. With a budget set by the French National Assembly under the direction of the Ministry of Information, all of its spending and investment plans had to be directly agreed by the Minister of Information and the Minister of Finance.

Alain Peyrefitte, Minister of Information, speaking in 1963, said that (RTF) television was "the government in every Frenchman's dining-room" – La télévision, c'est le gouvernement dans la salle à manger de chaque Français.

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[edit] 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 Cognac-Jay.

[edit] Channels

By the beginning of the 1960s, the RTF had established five radio and two television channels:

[edit] Radio

[edit] Television

  • La première chaîne ("The First Channel"), broadcast on VHF 441 lines until 3 January 1956 and 819 lines in black and white from 25 July 1948.
  • La deuxième chaîne ("The Second Channel"), created on 21 December 1963 and broadcast on UHF 625 lines in black and white.

[edit] Regional television

Regional television, other than for Paris, was slow in development compared with the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The first regional station began April 10, 1950 with two hours a day of programming for Lille. The main news programme was called "Images of North" (Images du Nord). "Tele-Lille" had a reach across borders, with five times more Belgian viewers (in Ghent and Tournai) than in northern France. By February 1952, a co-axial link with the main studios in Paris allowed "Tele-Lille" to rebroadcast main RTF programming when not on air. On October 15, 1953 "Tele Strasbourg" began, marking the beginning of the spread of regional television. Marseilles followed on September 20, 1954, Lyon on November 8, 1954, Toulouse in August 1961, Bordeaux on January 25, 1962 and most other regional centres following shortly afterward.

From late 1963, the regional programmes moved to La deuxième chaîne, and remained there until the opening of La troisième chaîne (The Third Channel) under the ORTF on December 31, 1972.

[edit] 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:

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
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