La Cinq (, ) was a French free-to-air television channel. Created by politician Jérôme Seydoux and Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, it existed from 1986 to 1992.
The contract for France's fifth terrestrial network, which was supposed to have been in effect for an 18-year term, was granted to Seydoux and Berlusconi in November 1985. It was the first private free-to-air television network in France. Programming began on 20 February 1986 at 8:30 pm; the first program on La Cinq was , which was taped at Canale 5's studios in Milan, Italy.
After the music channel TV6 in 1987, La Cinq became the second French national channel to have its broadcasting authorization withdrawn, following its bankruptcy.
History Audience share19864.2%19877.3%198810.3%198913.0%199011.7%199110.9%
Formation In 1985, a little over a year before the legislative elections, the Socialist Party feared failure and wanted to create a new space outside of the institutional domain of public television, capable of reaching a large audience (unlike the private subscription channel Canal+) and constitute a relay of opinion to its ideas if it was to return to the opposition.
On 16 January 1985 at 8pm, President of France François Mitterrand announced on the main evening news on Antenne 2, the creation of two new free-to-air private television channels, La Cinq and TV6 and also the creation of up to 85 local television stations.Jean-Claude Bourret and Bérangère Danigo - La Cinq, l'histoire secrète - Les éditions Trédaniel, 15 November 2023, , p. 24 He launched the idea of "an additional space of freedom" and asked the government of Laurent Fabius to study the project. The lawyer Jean-Denis Bredin, charged by the Prime Minister with drafting a report on the opening of "the television space to private television", submitted it to him on 20 May. The latter recommended the creation of two private, unencrypted national channels financed by advertising and whose frequencies would be licensed by the State in accordance with article 79 of the law of 29 July 1982 on audiovisual communication. On 31 July, Georges Fillioud, French Secretary of State in charge of Communication Technologies, presented to the Council of Ministers a speech on the development of the audiovisual sector. He announced a bill defining the creation, by the spring of 1986, of two new private television channels with national broadcasting, one general, the other with a musical vocation, as well as local television channels, whose capital would include press groups, production companies and advertising agencies.
A call for applications is launched for which CLT unofficially applied, aiming to establish RTL Télévision on French territory. The Fininvest group of Italian commercial television magnate Silvio Berlusconi sees this as an opportunity to extend its network in Europe, in order to market its catalogue of programs. At the beginning of November 1985, Silvio Berlusconi joined forces with the Chargeurs Réunis group of Jérôme Seydoux and Christophe Riboud to create the company France 5, which presented a commercial television project to obtain a concession on the new fifth terrestrial network. Berlusconi therefore used his political connections at the highest level, including those with the socialist president of the Italian Council, Bettino Craxi, who took it upon himself to warmly recommend him to François Mitterrand.
At the same time, the government engaged in a battle with the opposition in the National Assembly to obtain an amendment to the law on private television allowing the free installation of transmitters by TDF at the top of the Eiffel Tower, without having to obtain authorization from the city of Paris, owner of the monument and whose right-wing mayor is none other than the president of the RPR, Jacques Chirac. The Eiffel Tower amendment was finally adopted by the deputies of the left-wing majority on 15 November 1985.
Berlusconi and Seydoux's La Cinq On 20 November 1985, the government granted an 18-year concession to France Cinq, allowing them to operate the fifth national television network. This decision was criticised by the Minister of Culture and some of the President's advisers, who wanted to see cultural programming, and by the High Authority of Audiovisual Communication, which did not approve of the conditions but had no power to change them. At a press conference on 22 November 1985, Seydoux and Berlusconi presented the focus and style of the programs that would be broadcast on the fifth television channel. In response to critics who accused them of wanting to create "Coca-Cola" TV, Berlusconi, who developed La Cinq's programming from his catalogues, replied that the channel would be "neither Coca-Cola TV, nor spaghetti TV, but rather Beaujolais TV, a Saturday champagne". He also promised to feature well-known TV or film stars.
Determined to block this project, 60 senators had the Constitutional Council declare the "Eiffel Tower amendment" () unconstitutional on 13 December 1985. This forced the government to draft a new bill, which was accepted by Parliament on 21 December. On 31 December 1985, the France 5 company was incorporated in anonymous form with its registered office in Paris. On 16 January 1986 the RTL Group (at the time the Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT)) unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the Council of State to cancel the concession agreement; instead the government gave the RTL Group the right to use one of the two remaining free channels of the future TDF 1 satellite. On 20 January, Silvio Berlusconi presented the programs of his future commercial channel, officially known as La Cinq, to journalists, industrialists and advertisers in order to convince them to buy advertising airtime to finance the channel. The next day, the police were forced to intervene in order to allow TDF technicians to install La Cinq's transmitters at the top of the Eiffel Tower, after the City of Paris refused to do so for security reasons.
By mid-February, the capital of the France 5 companyLa saga de Ia Cinq (suite et fin) created to manage La Cinq worth 50 million francs is closed, where 40% is owned by Fininvest (Berlusconi) and 60% by SEPC (French shareholders).
Launch After three months of hostilities and a month of technical testing, La Cinq was finally able to start broadcasting on Thursday, 20 February 1986 at 20:30 local time, airing an introductory broadcast entitled Voila la Cinq, which had been recorded in the Fininvest Group's Milan studio. Up until midnight, Christian Morin, Roger Zabel, Amanda Lear, Ėlisabeth Tordjman and Alain Gillot-Pétré hosted major French stars (Johnny Hallyday, Serge Gainsbourg, Mireille Mathieu, Charles Aznavour) as well as international stars like Ornella Muti, who had been invited by Silvio Berlusconi to support a show that would be able to compete with TF1 or Antenne 2. For the next few weeks, the programming consisted of game shows and variety shows like Pentathlon, C'est beau la vie, and Cherchez la femme, which had been adapted from successful shows on Silvio Berlusconi's Italian network, Canale 5, and had also been influenced by French magazines like Mode. The programs were repeated every four to five hours and had up to three commercial breaks per show. The first hosts had formerly been presenters on TF1 (Christian Morin), Antenne 2 (Alain Gillot-Pétré, Roger Zabel and Élisabeth Tordjman), or one of Berlusconi's Italian networks (Amanda Lear). A continuity announcer presented the programs.
After the launch, the network was invested into feature film production of native theatrical feature films.
Pioneering usage of repeats Voilà La Cinq was broadcast at 8:30pm on 20 February 1986 and repeated at midnight, later the following day three times, at 7:30am, 11:30am and 3:30pm. Like this inauguration evening, the channel's programs are multi-broadcast according to the loop system. Offering four hours of programmes repeated five times per day, allowing the channel to broadcast 20 hours a day. From March 1986, La Cinq offered a few films at night.
24-hour broadcasting On the occasion of the first round of the 1988 presidential election, La Cinq broadcast 24 hours a day from 24 April 1988, during the special presidential election night, toggling between series, music videos and news flashes.
American series, the sinews of war Starting in February 1986, American TV series aired during daytime and late night programming. Most of these series came from Fininvest's catalogue and were distributed by production subsidiary Reteitalia. Some were new or unknown to viewers but others were familiar, because they were broadcast on other French networks in the 1960s and 1970s: Diff'rent Strokes, Happy Days, Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, The Dukes of Hazzard and Wonder Woman. Others such as The Twilight Zone were new and had to be dubbed. In 1985, TF1 was interested in the new version of The Twilight Zone even though it had not yet been broadcast by CBS. However, none of the purchasing managers at TF1 seriously consider that a young, still non-existent private channel could enter into competition with them. This is how the first channel missed this acquisition in favour of La Cinq. To celebrate the event, Philip Deguere, the executive producer of the series, wished La Cinq good luck, in a message broadcast during the inaugural evening. Just before the 8:30pm film, the strategic 7:30pm slot was occupied each day of the week by the show À fond la caisse in which a series is broadcast each time aimed at a young audience: Airwolf on Monday, Knight Rider on Tuesday, Riptide on Wednesday, CHiPs on Thursday and Street Hawk on Friday.
Films While FR3 was only authorized to broadcast 310 films per year, compared to 170 for TF1 and Antenne 2, La Cinq broadcast 250 films several times a week at 8:30pm in its first year. Among the first big-budget films broadcast in the first week were the French comedy L'Africain (first film, broadcast on Sunday, 23 February 1986, at 8:30pm), Saturday Night Fever (broadcast on Monday 24 February 1986 at 8:30pm) and La Féline (broadcast on Tuesday 25 February 1986 at 8:30pm); the last of which had its director Paul Schrader taking legal action, opposing the advertising cut. Films represented the channel's largest audience, helping attract a 15% share in Île-de-France.
Cinema professionals, citing a risk of a drop in theatre attendance, vigorously criticize the fact that La Cinq's specifications authorize it to broadcast films two years after their theatrical release, compared to three for other channels (except Canal+).
The filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, then president of the Society of Film Directors, took the lead in a protest movement among directors.M. Bertrand Tavernier, tête de file du mouvement de contestation des réalisateurs. In order to protest against the "sausaging of films" (saucissonage des films) by advertising on La Cinq, he returned his medal of Knight of Arts and Letters.. He was a signatory of L'appel d'Aubervilliers, along with Bernard Giraudeau, François Chaumette, Pierre Arditi, Gérard Blain, Marcel Bluwal, Maurice Dugowson, Anny Duperey, Jacques Fansten, Philippe Léotard, Stellio Lorenzi, Jean Rochefort, Claude Santelli etc.
Broken concessions Following the legislative elections of March 1986, the right returned to power. Jacques Chirac, who had become Prime Minister, asked his Minister of Communication, François Léotard, to implement the government's audiovisual policy: privatization of TF1 (FR3 was initially planned) and cancellation of the concessions of the two new private channels, La Cinq and TV6, too quickly awarded under pressure from the Élysée without a real call for tenders. By Decree No. 86-901 of 30 July 1986, the Chirac government decided to reallocate this channel before the end of its concession.