France 4 (pronounced: [fʁɑ̃s katʁ]) is a French public channel owned by France Télévisions, dedicated to entertainment. Originally launched as Festival, the channel took its current name in 2005, to match that of the other France Télévisions channels. The colour of France 4 is purple. It is accessible on French DTT (Télévision Numérique Terrestre (TNT)), on cable, on satellite and on IPTV.

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.