Early Television

History of the Paris TV Transmitter 

By Jerome Halphen  

 A bit of history:  in 1937 the Eiffel Tower was fitted with a very powerful TV transmitter (25kW), lineage was 455 lines but experimental, no regular programming. Transmissions stopped in 1940 because of the German invasion. In 1943, Kurt Hintzmann had the idea of using TV to entertain wounded German soldiers in Paris hospitals. He therefore created "Fersehsender Paris", see a 30 min film on YouTube.

Hintzmann had a NSDAP party card (you had to in those days), but he really wasn't a Nazi at heart. He was married to a French woman and very much a francophile. 

After a lot of searching, he set up the TV studio in a ex-dancing hall on Cognacq-Jay street and much work was done to make it a state of the art facility. Cameras were Telefunken iconoscopes imported from Berlin, same for receivers. No receivers were built by the French (to my knowledge). Transmission standard was 441/i/50 on VHF Band I, frequencies very close to Alexandra Palace 405. Programming was daily, several hours, programming schedules were published.

Hintzmann had no grudge against jews and in fact knowingly saved many from deportation or forced labor in Germany by giving them jobs at the TV station. The Gestapo suspected this and he was arrested at least once, but Hintzmann had protection from higher-ups in Berlin so nothing bad happened to him. 

Summer of 1944, Paris was soon to be liberated (rewatch the movie "Is Paris Burning" from the best-seller Lapierre & Collins). Fernsehsender Paris was shut down with virtually no damage, symbolically one transmitter tube was shot, that's all. The cameras were taken back to Germany. After Paris's liberation, the French were in possession of a pristine TV Broadcast system. 

1945 to 1956 The TV transmitter went back on the air (end of 44 or early 45) and continued Paris area only 441 service until 1956. The transmitter was destroyed by fire in July 1956, not by sabotage, but because it overheated in extended operation to cover election night results. In 1949, François Mitterrand, then minister of information, signed the decree making Henri de France's 819 line system the new standard for post-war years. 819 started in 1949, Paris only, on VHF Band III, channel 8A (174 to 185 Mhz). 

Dual illumination, 441 & 819 continued until 1956, then 819 only. The 441 Tx was never repaired and owners of 441 TVs got a small Gvt compensation to help them buy a new 819 TV. No info, but i guess the dual-illumination was achieved by pointing a 819 camera to a 441 monitor, it would be quite impossible to have 441 and 819 cameras side by side for dual pickup of live events. The Cognacq-Jay street studios remained as French TV channel 1 HQ until 1983 when the channel was privatized (sold to the Bouygues industrial consortium), was renamed TF1 "Television Française 1" and to SECAM L UHF 625 color. 819 was shut off in 1983. The Network became Canal +, the first pay-TV service (SECAM L VHF 625).