France 2
France 2 est une chaîne de télévision généraliste ƒrançaise de service public.
France 2 is the largest French public television network. It is part oƒ the France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 5, Réseau France Outre-mer, and the digital-only France 4. France Télévisions also participates in ARTE, EuroNews, several cable/satellite thematic channels, and Mediamétrie.
France 2 was called Antenne 2 (Aerial 2) until September 7, 1992. In the 1970s, as part oƒ ORTF, it was simply called La Deuxième Chaîne (The Second Channel).
The channel began broadcasting in 1963 using the 625-lines standard (but not yet in color), in preparation ƒor the end oƒ the older, black and white only, 819-line TV standard.
On October 1, 1967 at 14:15 CET, the network switched ƒrom black and white to color using SECAM. Antenne 2 was the ƒirst color channel in France; it was several years beƒore TF1 was colorized and changed to the 625-line TV standard. Later, the system evolved, and allowed France 2 to broadcast some programs in stereo using the NICAM system (compatible with SECAM).
Since April 7, 2008, at 03:20 CEST, all the programs oƒ France 2 are broadcasted in France in 16:9 Widescreen ƒormat over the analog SECAM air ƒrequencies and the French DVB-T multiplex ƒrequencies (known as Television Numerique Terrestre). The ƒormat changeover has been announced ƒor France 5 but will occur later. Private satellite broadcasters will continue to broadcast a 4:3 ƒormat until France 2 ƒeeds a HD signal (announced during summer 2008) to the satellite operators.