Arte

Arte (Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne) is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts. Its facilities are located in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris and Strasbourg (headquarters) in France and Baden-Baden in Germany.

Because it is an international joint venture (an EEIG), programs cater technically to audiences from both countries. This implies double-titling, opposite-language subtitling and dubbing, hosts speaking both languages alternately and generally two separate audio tracks (available through DVB-T, satellite television and digital cable).

History

Arte began transmission in 1992, filling frequencies left unused by the demise of La Cinq, the first French commercial television network (created in 1986).

Programs are created by Arte France formerly known as La Sept (theoretically La Société d'édition des programmes de télévision, but also a play on words, given that the name intuitively means the seventh network and indeed La Sept existed while the fifth network was still La Cinq; it made satellite television programs at the time) and by ARTE Deutschland GmbH, a subsidiary of the two main public German TV networks ARD and ZDF.

Arte has also an on-line radio web site, called Arte Radio.

Transmission and reception

In France, in digital broadcast programming is available permanently (on digital cable, digital satellite and digital terrestrial television), but the analog broadcast is on the air only in the evening, as France 5 operates the frequencies during the day.

Arte is more popular in France (market share of about 5%) than in Germany (about 1%), but in Germany it has much more competition. Arte is also available in Belgium, Austria, Israel, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland via cable.

The Australian Special Broadcasting Service translates many Arte programs into English for broadcast on its own television network and overseas.

Many French-language Arte programs are also broadcast in Canada on the ARTV cable channel, partly owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (60%), Télé-Québec (25%) and Arte itself (15%).

On 1 July 2008, Arte began broadcasting in HDTV (720p/50) via DVB-S2 on Astra. Arte is now the second available 24-hour HDTV channel transmitting via satellite to their German and French audience, next to the German Sky pay TV HDTV channel.

Programming

• Abenteuer Arte
• Arte Europa
• Arte Info – information program
• Arte Kultur – cultural program
• Arte Reportage – current affairs program
• Arte Themenabend – special topics show
• Bagdad, le bac sous les bombes / Die Jungs von der Bagdad-High – documentary film
• Breaking Bad – an American TV show – coming soon
• CHIC (arte) – fashion and style program
• Das Forum der Europäer – political discussion about Europe
• Denken erlaubt
• Die großen Sportduelle – a show about the greatest sports duels
• Die Nacht/La Nuit – late-night news
• Durch die Nacht mit …
• Geo 360
• Global Mag
• Hippokrates
• Karambolage – a show about French/German customs
• Kurzschluss
• LOLA – women magazine
• Metropolis (arte)
• Mit offenen Karten/Le Dessous des Cartes – geopolitical documentary
• Maestro (arte)
• Memoquiz – recognition game shows
• Top of the Pops 70s – archive music show (a French and German equivalent of TOTP2)
• Tracks – music program
• WunderWelten
• Zapping International – a documentary about television around the world

Logos

See also

• European Institutions in Strasbourg

References

External links

• ARTE Website (French) (German) features a free VoD service for parts of the arte made TV-programs restricted by IP-address.
• ARTE Radio
• ARTE's non free VoD service