France Ô

France Ô (pronounced [fʁɑ̃s o]) was a French free-to-air television channel featuring programming from the French overseas departments and collectivities in Metropolitan France. It was part of the France Télévisions group. It was a national counterpart of the local Outre-Mer 1ère networks.[1]

France Ô
France Ô
CountryFrance
Broadcast areaFrance
Headquarters3–4, rue Danton
92299 Malakoff, Hauts-de-Seine
Programming
Picture format1080i HDTV (16:9)
Ownership
OwnerFrance Télévisions
Sister channelsFrance 2
France 3
France 4
France 5
France Info
History
Launched25 March 1998 (1998-03-25)
Closed24 August 2020 (2020-08-24)
Former namesRFO Sat (1998–2004)
Availability
Terrestrial
Digital terrestrial televisionChannel 19
Digital terrestrial television in Overseas FranceChannel 6 or 7 or 8

History

The channel was launched in 1998 as RFO Sat by Jean-Marie Cavada, then-president of RFO, and initially broadcast for only 9 hours per day. It was re-branded as France Ô on 25 February 2005 after the reunification of RFO with France Télévisions. The "O" stands for Outre-mer (overseas); the circumflex, which is considered an accent in French grammar, was used to emphasize that the channel was open to diverse accents and dialects, as well as to ensure that the name was not read as France 0 ("France zero").[2]

The channel became available in overseas territories in November 2010, replacing the RFO-operated Tempo, and was launched in DTT nationally the same year.

Closure
Final logo, used from 29 January 2018.

In July 2018 the French government announced the closure of France Ô due to declining viewership. The ceasing of broadcast was scheduled for 9 August 2020, in time for the climax of the 2020 Summer Olympics, but was later pushed to 24 August due to scheduling issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the games being initially delayed to 2021. The last programme broadcast on the channel was a repeat of the concert L'Outre-mer fait son Olympia 2019. After this, the channel only broadcast a loop of commercials promoting a new France Télévisions portal for overseas territories, known as "Portail des Outre-mer La 1ère", in addition to other overseas-themed programs on other France Télévisions channels. Its signal was permanently cut off on 2 September.[3][4]

See also

References
  1. "En Polynésie, la suppression annoncée de France Ô ne passe pas". Le Monde (in French). 18 February 2019. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  2. Desroses, Sandrine (1 March 2005). "France Ô remplace RFO Sat". Retrieved 9 April 2008.
  3. "France Ô a fait ses adieux". ozap.com (in French). Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  4. "Franceinfo passera en HD dès le 1er septembre après la fermeture de France Ô". ozap.com (in French). 19 August 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
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