France 4 () is a French free-to-air television channel owned by France Télévisions, focused on children's programming. The colour of France 4 is purple.
Originally launched as Festival in 1996, the channel took its current name in 2005 when it became a free channel. The channel targets young audiences, and children during the day. In 2016, France 4 was refocused on family programming.
History
Festival (1996–2005) On 24 June 1996, France Télévision established Festival, a satellite channel for the TPS satellite service, which France Télévision co-owned at the time. Festival offered a selection of films and television series, many of them previously seen on France 2, France 3 and Arte.
France 4 (2001–present) In 2001, when the French digital terrestrial television system was in its developmental stage, the socialist government of Lionel Jospin asked the president of France Télévisions to consider a bouquet of public channels to be broadcast digitally, so that the public broadcaster could have involvement in this project. France Télévisions proposed the creation of three new channels: "France 1", "France 4" and "France 6", an all-news channel, a channel dedicated to the regions, and a channel featuring repeat broadcasts of France 2 and France 3.
Eventually, France Télévisions would have four digital channels besides France 2 and France 3, with three of them occupying existing channels: France 5 (formerly La Cinquième), Arte, and La Chaîne Parlementaire (a legislative channel); France 5 and Arte would switch from a combined service to two separate 24-hour services in the spring of 2005. France Télévisions thus only had space for one more new channel. The group eventually proposes the existing "Festival" to be the "new" channel. On 23 October 2002, the Audiovisual Superior Council authorised Festival to begin broadcasting in digital. France Télévisions planned for Festival to be renamed "France 8" (as it would have been the eighth television network in France) or "France Prime", but opted instead for France 4 after being allocated to channel 14. The newly created France 4 proposed to present a variety of entertainment, sports, fiction, cinema and series.
In July 2009, France 4 began broadcasting in 16:9. On 6 October 2011, France 4 launched its HD feed.
On 19 December 2009, France Télévisions launched Ludo, a new unique children's brand, to merge all former blocks Toowam (France 3), Les Zouzous (France 5, for preschoolers) and KD2A (France 2, the channel ceased to broadcast children shows). Ludo was broadcast on France 3 (focusing on generalist children's shows), France 5 (for preschoolers) and France 4 focused on more teenagers programs like 6teen, live-action shows and action shows, and broadcasts at middays and preevenings. Due to bad ratings, Ludo was removed from France 5 and France 4 on 25 June 2011: on France 5, it became Zouzous, and on France 4, the children's shows became broadcast without a branded block.
France 4 continued to broadcast cartoons only at mornings, and starting September 2013 until midday. These cartoons continued to target a teenager audience, with action shows (Code Lyoko, Wakfu, DC and Marvel cartoons), and sometimes more adult shows like Mad and Crash Canyon.
Reconversion to a hybrid channel (2014) On 31 March 2014, France 4 got a rebrand and started to timeshare most of its daily time with the Ludo and Zouzous blocks for children.
In evenings, it targeted a young adult audience, but in 2016, France 4 was refocused on family.
Closure plan
In June 2018, a proposal was issued to shut down France 4 as part of planned reforms of France Télévisions, with programming dispersed to France 3, France 5 and online platforms. The proposal was criticised by France's animation industry.
was launched on 9 December 2019 as the new child brand of France Télévisions, a programming block broadcast all day on France 4 and as a separate online on-demand service. Programming and content for teens and young adults is instead available through France.tv Slash.
France 4 was originally planned to close on 9 August 2020, one day after the initially planned date for the closing ceremony of the 2020 Summer Olympics. However, in July 2020, just days before its planned closure, the French Government announced that the channel would continue to broadcast for another 12 months, whilst also pushing back the closure of France Ô by a month, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed the games to July 2021. France 4 carried school programming during the pandemic, which showed the utility of the channel.