Francophonie: TV5Monde celebrates 40 years!

For its 40 years anniversary, TV5Monde is having a look back at its past. The international French-speaking channel was created on 2nd January 1984 by a consortium of medias including French, Swiss and Belgian channels (TF1, Antenne 2, FR3, TSR and RTBF), first gathered under the name TV5, in order to “promote throughout the world French culture and creation”.

Preferred media for Francophonie

The French government information website celebrates this anniversary and sheds light of the history of the media and its “40 years of Francophonie”, and notes that the channel took its current name in 2006.

TV5Monde, is now financed by France, Switzerland, Canada, Québec and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, and actually includes eight general channels and two specialised channels (for kids and specialised in French-speaking culture). The channel also has a free digital platform, TV5Mondeplus, to watch replays of specific contents (the channel has right agreements for the whole world) and access exclusive and original support. So it is possible to explore the world of French language, with TV5Monde offering to discover the French language with quiz, dictations and games, but even to learn French with 3,500 free exercises, scalable per level.

And the government website adds that the first channel in French in the world is also the official operator of the international Organisation of La Francophonie (IOF), the entity in charge of implementing “French-speaking multi-lateral cooperation to promote the French language, education, but also values such as peace, democracy and human rights”. And the IOF underlines that as such, all TV5Monde shows “attract an aggregate number of 60 viewers per week, and 30 million digital viewers per month”. The IOF also explains with 14 languages available for subtitles (German, English, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian and Vietnamese), TV5Monde is now “watched well beyond French-speaking audiences and fully ensures its mission of media for francophonie”.

A meeting place for French lovers

In an interview for another media (France Télévision), Yves Bigot, CEO of TV5Monde, talked about this anniversary. In December, TV5Monde has organised for this celebration a big series of original shows to draw attention on climate change, a process marking the commitment in the fight for the planet and the start of a new lead of Francophonie for the planet. This exclusive programme was broadcasted over 19 hours, with a “plan deployed in 17 cities worldwide, over five continents, in favour of the protection of the environment”, which are as many hours of programme necessary to talk about “the challenges people are facing and the answers they bring to face such challenges at local level”.

In addition to this new fight, the channel’s CEO has announced “having received a mandate” to “start discussing with African States to see how they could join TV5Monde”. After explaining that the channel is available in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger, Yves Bigot said that the channel has the best audience in Democratic Republic of the Congo. “With 30 million viewers, it is the most French-speaking country in the world. So, there’s a logic to it”, he said.

However, besides Africa, according to Bigot, more countries show appetence for TV5Monde. “In China and India, which is one of the ten countries in the world where we are the most watched, thanks to English subtitling, many viewers are not French speakers, but French lovers who are interested in the art of living, cinema, and information that are different from what they often receive.” And Bigot concluded by closing the public debate of the channel, ensuring that there is “a lot of passion for the French language throughout the world”.

Find out more:

• TV5Monde website 
• 40 years of TV5Monde on the French government’s website
• Interview of Yves Bigot, CEO of TV5Monde