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. Eventually, France Télévisions would have four digital channels besides France 2 and France 3, with three of them occupying existing channels:
France 5 (formerly La Cinquième), Arte, and La Chaîne Parlementaire (a legislative channel); this led to France 5 and Arte being broadcast on two separated channels on digital (as they were already broadcast fully on cable television), after being a combined service on analog. France Télévisions thus only had space for one more new channel. The group eventually proposed that Festival become a free-to-air channel. On 23 October 2002, the
Audiovisual Superior Council authorized Festival to begin broadcasting in digital. France Télévisions planned for Festival to be renamed "France 8" (as it would have been the eighth television network in France) or "France Prime", but opted instead for
France 4 to fit in between the other channels from the network. The newly created France 4 proposed to present a variety of entertainment, sports, fiction, cinema and series. In January 2009,
Arte sold its 11% share in the channel to France Télévisions for €4.62 million. In July 2009, France 4 began broadcasting in
16:9. On 6 October 2011, France 4 launched its HD feed. On 19 December 2009, France Télévisions launched Ludo, a new unique children's brand, which merged all former blocks Toowam (
France 3),
Les Zouzous (
France 5, for preschoolers) and KD2A (
France 2, the channel ceased to broadcast children shows). Ludo was broadcast on France 3 (focusing on generalist children's shows), France 5 (for preschoolers) and France 4 focused on more teenagers programs like
6teen, live-action shows and action shows, and broadcasts at middays and preevenings. Due to bad ratings, Ludo was removed from France 5 and France 4 on 25 June 2011, making Ludo a France 3 exclusive: on France 5, it became Zouzous, and on France 4, the children's shows became broadcast without a branded block. France 4 continued to broadcast cartoons only at mornings, and starting September 2013 until midday. These cartoons continued to target a teenager audience, with action shows (
Code Lyoko,
Wakfu, DC and Marvel cartoons). France 4 also allowed time to more adult shows like
Mad and
Crash Canyon, and had created Studio 4 (now Studio par France.tv Slash) in 2012.
Reconversion to a hybrid channel (2014) On 31 March 2014, France 4 got a rebrand and started to timeshare most of its daily time with the Ludo and Zouzous blocks for children. In evenings, it targeted a young adult audience, but in 2016, France 4 was refocused on family.
Averted closure, focus on cultural programmes In June 2018, a proposal was issued to shut down France 4 as part of planned reforms of France Télévisions, with programming dispersed to France 3, France 5 and online platforms. The proposal was criticised by France's animation industry. was launched on 9 December 2019 as the new children's television brand of France Télévisions, consisting of a programming block on France 3, France 4 and France 5 and a digital platform on France.tv. This new brand was considered for replacing France 4. Programming and content for teens and young adults would be moved to the new digital offer
France.tv Slash. France 4 was originally planned to close on 9 August 2020 with its sister channel France Ô, one day after the initially planned date for the closing ceremony of the
2020 Summer Olympics. However, in July 2020, just days before its planned closure, the French Government announced that the channel would continue to broadcast for another 12 months, whilst also pushing back the closure of
France Ô by a month, as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic, which
delayed the games to July 2021. France 4 carried school programming during the pandemic, which showed the utility of the channel. From September 2020, the channel moved from being largely a children's entertainment channel, adding more educational programming for children and parents. In January 2021, a report entitled "mission flash" was submitted to the National Assembly by two deputies in favor of safeguarding France 4,
Béatrice Piron (LREM) and
Maxime Minot (LR), who were charged with studying the offer for young people on public service television. From 3 May 2021, France 4 began timesharing with , reducing the air time from 5:00 am to 8:15 pm. On the 18th that same month, French president Émmanuel Macron announced that France 4 will continue airing and will not close down in August as planned, explaining that its utility through the pandemic for education and its new timeslot of culture at night were the reasons for its continuation. In August, Culturebox stopped airing as a TV channel whilst remaining a programing block on France 4 and keeping timesharing separate. On 26 August 2024, Okoo expanded its timeslot until 9pm, with new programming for families on weekends such as
Fort Boyard. On 13 January 2025,
Arcom announced a re-numbering of DTT channels, including the move of France 4 from channel 14 to channel 4, until then occupied by
Canal+, from 6 June 2025. Since then, the Culturebox brand ended and France 4 uses its brand for cultural programs at night, with the permanent france.tv being shown during programs like the other channels from the France Télévisions network. Programs such as "Les Estivales de Culturebox" (The Summer Festival of Culturebox) were renamed coincide with the channel's cultural night time programing, becoming "Les Estivales de France 4". The channel's upgrade also led to France Télévisions wish of reinforcing the channel's programing as well as developing a strong access prime-time case. It was announced in late June that the program Les Maternelles (originally broadcast on France 5, lately broadcast on France 2) would fill the access prime-time case from 7:40 pm to 9 pm. ==Audience share==