26 April 1935: France’s first-ever TV programme is broadcast on the brand new Radio-PTT Vision channel. Renamed Radiodiffusion Nationale Télévision in 1937 and RTF Télévision in 1949, in 1964 it becomes the flagship channel of ORTF, the new French public-service broadcaster. In the 1970s, shortly after the break-up of ORTF, Télévision Française 1 starts broadcasting as the successor flagship channel on 6 January 1975. The channel’s early years – initially in the public sector, and post privatisation in 1987 – see the invention of a host of new programmes and formats. Already, TF1 has ambitions to become a popular mass-media channel.

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BIRTH OF FRANCE’S FIRST TV CHANNEL

1989

Catherine Laborde becomes a weather presenter, and TF1 starts screening the American soap The Young and the Restless under the title Les Feux de l’Amour.   

1988

Patrick Le Lay takes over as Chairman & CEO of TF1. Talk show Ciel mon mardi makes its debut, as does Jean-Pierre Pernaut as anchor of the lunchtime news. TF1 takes its first steps into the music business with the creation of in-house label Une Musique.

1987

The Chirac government privatises France’s flagship channel, and the Bouygues group is selected as preferred bidder. From 1987 onwards, TF1 launches new formats that will go down in the channel’s history: home shopping show Le Magazine de l’objet, devised by Pierre Bellemare, rebranded a year later as Téléshopping; kids’ show Le Club Dorothée; variety show Sacrée Soirée, hosted by Jean-Pierre Foucault; gameshows Le Juste Prix and La Roue de la Fortune (French versions of The Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune); and Nicolas Hulot’s cult show Ushuaïa.

1986

Coluche hosts a four-hour live show promoting his new Restos du Coeur food aid charity. He invites a host of performers and celebrities to take part in a live show for no fee in aid of his charity. At first some of them decline, to which Coluche is said to have riposted “Vous êtes vraiment une bande d'enfoirés” (“You really are a bunch of jerks”). Hence the Enfoirés name adopted by the band of performers in the now annual show.

1983

Appointed as Chairman in 1982, Michel May steps down in July 1983. He is succeeded by Hervé Bourges, with the ambition of making TF1 a popular mass-media channel. The start of his term sees the end of black-and-white transmission from the Eiffel Tower: TF1 is now broadcast in colour across the whole of France.

1981

On 2 July 1981 Jacques Boutet becomes the new Chairman & CEO and makes the channel more highbrow, bringing new faces to the screen such as Frédéric Mitterrand and Michel Polac (presenter of Droit de réponse).

1977

Iconic soccer show Téléfoot begins, as does the regular Sunday-evening movie slot Le Cinéma du Dimanche Soir. In 1977-1978, the channel posts all-time record viewing figures as its average audience share hits 50.4%.

1975

Evelyne Dhéliat makes her debut on TF1 as a continuity announcer. News bulletins are anchored by Yves Mourousi at lunchtime, Roger Gicquel in the evening, and Jean-Claude Bourret at the weekend. Jean-Pierre Pernaut takes his first steps as a newscaster, presenting the late-night bulletin until 1978. Casimir delights kids in L’Ile aux Enfants.

1974

Following the break-up of ORTF, TF1 (short for “Télévision Française 1”) assumes the mantle of flagship channel, screening 60 hours of programmes a week to the 70% of French households with a TV set. The channel’s first logo is designed by Catherine Chaillet.

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