

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. The remaining state-owned channels came under severe pressure from their private competitors and lost 30% of their market share between 19. TF1 was privatised in 1987, radically affecting the balance of the French television market. 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. Privately owned channels such as Canal+ and La Cinq (now superseded by France 5) soon became major competitors to the state-owned channels after the state monopoly was lifted. 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vying for advertisers, they retained a collective monopoly over television broadcasting in France that was not repealed until 1981. Antenne 2 and the other corporations were constituted as limited companies with the state controlling 100% of their capital. Three television "programme corporations" were established on 6 January 1975 – TF1, Antenne 2 and FR3, now France 3 – alongside Radio France, the Société française de production, the public broadcasting agency Télédiffusion de France and the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA). 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. Such technology later allowed the network to air programming in NICAM stereo (compatible with SECAM). TF1 would not commence colour broadcasting on 625-lines until 1 September 1975. La deuxième chaîne became the first colour television channel in France. The switch to colour occurred at 14:15 CET on 1 October 1967, using the SECAM system. 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. Within a year, ORTF rebranded that channel as La deuxième chaîne (The Second Channel). Originally under the ownership of the RTF, the channel went on the air for the first time on 18 April 1964 as RTF Télévision 2.

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