Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française

For the microphone technique, see ORTF stereo technique.

Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française

Type	Establishment public industrial and commercial
Country	France
Key people	Jacques-Bernard Dupont Jean-Jacques de Bresson Arthur Conte Marceau Long
Launch date	June 27, 1964
Dissolved	December 31, 1974

The Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF) was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1974, with providing public radio and television in France.

Post World War II

A public monopoly on broadcasting in France had been established with the formation of Radiodiffusion Française (RDF) in 1945. RDF was renamed Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF) in 1949 and ORTF in 1964. 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 (RMC) from Monaco, Radio Luxembourg (later RTL) from Luxembourg, and Europe 1 from Germany (exceptionally, in 1974, RMC was allowed to set up a transmitter on French territory).

French Television Revolution

On August 8 1974, the ORTF was split into 7 institutions:

• Télévision Française 1 (TF1) (privatised in 1987)
• Antenne 2 (now France 2)
• France Régions 3 (now France 3)
• SFP - Société Française de Production (programme production)
• INA - Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (archives)
• TDF - Télédiffusion de France (transmission)
• Radio France - (Société Radio France) French national and international radio

The New Consortium

RTF was one of 23 founding broadcasting organisations of the European Broadcasting Union in 1950. After the split of ORTF the French membership was taken over by TDF. TF1 became the other French active member. A2, FR3 and SRF became Supplementarty active members until they became active members in 1982. In 1983 the French membership of the public French broadcasters was transferred to a joint organisation Organisme français de radiodiffusion et de télévision (ORTF). Nine years later, the ORTF was succeeded by Groupement des Radiodiffuseurs Français de l’UER (GRF) which currently holds one of the French memberships of the EBU.

See also

• Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française
• Musique concrète
• Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel, regulating authorities
• Groupe TF1
• France Television
• Orchestre National de France