During 2001, when France was considering launching digital terrestrial television under socialist rule, proposals were drafted to give the public broadcaster France Télévision three new digital television channels. Meanwhile, the political powers changed to a conservative government who were less favorable to public television. The result was that six digital channels would be given to public broadcasters, with the existing broadcasters and a parliamentary channel occupying five of the slots, leaving only one new channel for France Télévisions.
As there is no new funding added, a proposal to launch Festival on digital terrestrial television was made. They eventually settle on the name France 4, as the broadcasters existing channels were called France 2, France 3 and France 5.
Festival was renamed to France 4 and launched on digital terrestrial television on March 31, 2005.
On April 7, 2008, France Télévisions introduced a company-wide image refresh, which included an updated logo and the addition of gradients to the logos of each channel. This logo was used as a secondary logo between 2011 and 2014.
2011–2014[]
Designer:
Les Télécréateurs
Typography:
Flama
Launched:
September 19, 2011
On September 19, 2011, France 4's logo was slightly tilted, and was given a new look; however, in March 2014, the channel reverted to its previous logo.
2018–present[]
Designer:
Movement
Typography:
FTVBrown (modified version of LL Brown)
Launched:
January 29, 2018
On January 29, 2018, France Télévisions introduced a new look for all of its services for the first time since 2002. This new look was designed by Paris-based agency Movement, who also designed the branding package for Franceinfo.
On August 14, 2020, the French government issued Decree 2020-1055, confirming the decision to close down France 4 after August 20, 2021. If closed, it would've likely be replaced with Okoo and Lumni, but on May 18, 2021 it was announced that France 4 would continue broadcasting even after its planned closed date.
1Joint venture with ARD and ZDF. 2Joint venture with TF1 and Groupe M6. 3TF1, the former main channel of what is now France Télévisions, was privatized in April 1987 and is now the flagship channel of Groupe TF1.