France 2

France 2 is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4, France 5 and France Ô. France Télévisions also participates in ARTE, EuroNews, several cable/satellite thematic channels, and Mediamétrie.

Originally under the ownership of the RTF, the channel went on-air for the first time on 21 December 1963 as RTF Télévision 2. Within a year, the formation of the ORTF led to a rebranding as La Deuxième Chaîne (The Second Channel). Originally, the network was broadcast on 625-line transmitters only in preparation for the discontinuation of 819-line black & white transmissions and the introduction of colour. The switch to colour occurred at 14:15 CET on 1 October 1967, using the SECAM system. La Deuxième Chaîne became the first colour television channel in France – TF1 would not commence colour broadcasting on 625-lines until several years later. Such technology later allowed the network to air programming in NICAM stereo (compatible with SECAM).

Since 03:20 CET on 7 April 2008, all France 2 programming has been broadcast in 16:9 widescreen format over the analog SECAM air frequencies and the French DVB-T multiplex frequencies (known as Television Numerique Terrestre). A HD version of France 2 has been broadcasting via DVB-S Service CanalSat since 1 July 2008 and on DVB-T since 30 October 2008.