Office of broadcasting French television

The Office of French Broadcasting-Television (or ORTF ) was a public corporation related to commercial industrial and, French in load of the Public service of audio-visual, created the June 27th 1964 (law n° 64-621) and removed the December 31st 1974 (law n° 74-469).

Organization of the Office

The Général de Gaulle wished that the French Broadcasting-television (rtf) become an autonomous institution, similar to those of the other great democracies, as BBC with the the United Kingdom of which it had personally tested the value in 1940. The statute of the ORTF was thus copied on that of BBC.

Direction and Board of directors

Contrary to the rtf which it replaced, the ORTF is not placed under the direct authority of the Minister for Information but only under its supervision in order to control the respect of its obligations of Public service.

The decree on enforcement of a law of July 22nd 1964 lays down the appointment of the members of its board of directors in the Council of Ministers. These members (enters 14 and 28) represent for half the State and half the listeners and televiewers. The President of the Office is named by the Council of Ministers; the managing director by decree in the Council of Ministers.

Managing directors:

Jacques-Bernard Dupont: 6/27/1964 - 6/7/1968
Jean-Jacques de Bresson: 6/7/1968 - 5/13/1972

Executive vice president:

Claude Contamine

The law n° 72-553 of July 3rd 1972 envisages the nomination of the chairman of the ORTF in the Council of Ministers, a minimum service in the event of strike and the constitution of controls. These controls, which correspond to the functional units of the ORTF, are created by a decree of Philippe Malaud, Secretary of State in charge of the Public office and Services of information, on July 21st. A High council of audio-visual the chaired by the Prime Minister, and including/understanding representative members of Parliament and personalities is instituted. Its role is advisory and it intervenes at the request of the government.

general President-directors:

Arthur Tells: 7/14/1972 - 10/23/1973
Long Marceau: 10/23/1973 - 12/31/1974

Budget and resources

During its creation, the Office raises great hopes at the professionals of audio-visual because the financial control of the State should be done only a posteriori, contrary to the rtf, where control a priori blocked any project of scale. However, on July 22nd 1964, a decree of the Minister for Finance, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, institutes a controller of State preserving the same capacities as the Financial Comptroller of the rtf. Moreover, the Minister for Information and the Minister for Finance are charged to control the budget and the accounts. Each year, the Parliament registers in the finance law the perception of the royalty for right of use of the radios and television.

October 18th 1967, a relative bill with the introduction of publicity, up to that point monopoly of the newspapers, on television is submitted to the Parliament. The publicity, limited first of all to the 20 hour old newspaper should not exceed 2, then 4 minutes, with spots of 30 second maximum excluding the tobacco, alcohol and the real estate. October 1st 1968, the first chain diffuses the first two minutes of publicities televised while starting with a spot for the Régilait Cow. The French Governed of publicity, public limit company subsidiary of the ORTF, is created by decree on January 8th 1969. It ensures the control of publicity on the antennas of the ORTF in the respect of the fundamental interests of the nation's economy and in accordance with the general mission reserved for the ORTF. In January 1971, commercial publicity is authorized on the second channel. The receipts coming from commercial publicity are limited to 25% of the resources of the Office by the law n° 72-553 of July 3rd, 1972.

SLII and CII

An interdepartmental liaison Department for information (SLII) east creates on July 31st 1963 by the Minister for Information, Alain Peyrefitte. Its mission is to gather information emanating of the services of the various ministries to make some profit of exclusiveness the Television news and broadcast Information. The meetings of the service are chaired every Tuesday by Alain Peyrefitte and his right-hand man, Jacques Leprette, who do not fail to recall to the order the representatives various ministers when those try to give to the journalists directives rather than to expose facts. The successors of Alain Peyrefitte do not attend the meetings any more and, without control, the SLII is officialized and transformed then into room of recording of the ministerial wills. The Office is entirely controlled by the ministry for Information via its senior officials placed at stations - keys. Discredited after the events of May 1968, the SLII is replaced on December 2nd 1968 by the Inter-ministerial committee for the information (CII) which ensures in particular " the coordination of the action of information carried out by the various ministries ".

Missions

For the first time; the law n° 64-621 specifies the missions of the ORTF: " to satisfy the needs for information, culture, education and distraction of the public ".

Seats of the Office

The ORTF New Year's gift the spectacular building builds in edge of the the Seine with 116 avenue du Président-Kennedy in the 16 {{E}} district of Paris by the architect Henry Bernard and inaugurated on December 14th, 1963 by the president of the Republic, Charles de Gaulle. The circular enclosure of the House of the ORTF made aluminum and mosaic is capped with a tower of glass. Into this building of 25.000 m2 move on eleven kilometers of corridors and several levels the Head office, the administrative services and techniques and the radio.

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