History
The present channel is the direct successor of Antenne 2, established under a 1974 law that mandated the breakup of ORTF into seven distinct organisations. Three television "programme corporations" were established in 1975 – TF1, Antenne 2 and FR3, now France 3 – alongside Radio France, the production corporation Société française de production, the public broadcasting agency TéléDiffusion de France and the Institut national de l'audiovisuel. Antenne 2 and the other corporations were constituted as limited companies with the state controlling 100% of their capital. Although the three channels were set up as competitors vying for advertisers, they retained a collective monopoly over television broadcasting in France that was not repealed until 1981. Privately owned channels such as Canal+ and La Cinq (now superseded by France 5) soon became major competitors to the state-owned channels after the state monopoly was lifted. The breakup of ORTF had been intended to stimulate competition between the public channels but failed in this aim; both TF1 and Antenne 2 came to rely on a diet of popular entertainment shows alongside cheap American imports, seeking to maximise ratings and attract advertisers.
TF1 was privatised in 1987, radically affecting the balance of the French television market. The remaining state-owned channels came under severe pressure from their private competitors and lost 30% of their market share between 1987 and 1989. In an effort to save them, a single director-general was appointed to manage both Antenne 2 and FR3 and the two channels merged to form the France Télévisions group. They were renamed in 1992 as France 2 and France 3 respectively.
By 1995, the combined audience share of the two state-owned channels was 41%, with France 2 in particular being heavily dependent on advertising and sponsorship revenues, which comprised 43.8% of its budget by 1996. The focus on ratings led to strong rivalry with TF1, for instance prompting the two channels to broadcast popular shows and news programmes in the same timeslots. TF1 and France 2 compete for the same demographics; dramas (including American imports), game shows and light entertainments form the dominant mix on both channels.
Read more about this topic: France 2
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