The TF1 Tower () is a building in the

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious Communes of France, commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris ...

suburb of Paris, used as the headquarters of the French TV channel

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...

and several subsidiaries of the

TF1 Group TF1 Group () is a French media holding company. Its best-known property is the broadcast network TF1. The group was formed after TF1 was privatized in April 1987 in which the channel was launched back on January 6 1975 twelve years prior. It is ...

since 1992.

Location

The TF1 Tower is located at the corner of Quai du Point-Du-Jour and Avenue Le-Jour-Se-Lève in the Point-Du-Jour neighborhood of

in the Hauts-de-Seine department, southwest of Paris. It is situated close to the Pont aval and the Pont d'Issy.

Architecture

The TF1 Tower is shaped as cylinder covered with reflective glass. It has 14 floors and an overall floor area of . The direction offices are located on the upper floor. A webcam on the top of the tower broadcasts real-time pictures of Paris on TF1's official website as well as in TF1's news programme studio.

History

The building was designed by architect and built by the

Bouygues Bouygues S.A. () is a French engineering group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on the Euronext, Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip (stock market), blue chip in the ...

group. Its construction was decided after a delegated project management agreement dated March 20, 1991 and authorised by the administration council on April 11, 1991. The construction was invoiced €37.1 million in fiscal year 1991 and €18.8 million in fiscal year 1992. The TF1 channel moved to the building on June 1, 1992, from its former headquarters at . Thanks to a leasing contract, the

became the owner of the tower on June 30, 2001. According to journalists and Henri Haguet, the new headquarters tower is symbolic of TF1's ideological shift toward

productivity Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proce ...

. TF1 also uses the tower for advertising and displaying. On April 15, 2012, the façade was lit with a screen that enabled the news programme to be watched from the banks of the Seine River.

In popular culture

In 1995, the tower was climbed with bare hands by Alain Robert. In 2005, the TF1 Tower was featured in the introduction animated short film of

Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...

's one-man-show ''Arthur en vrai''. In August 2007, an advertisement for video game '' Halo 3'' showed the game's main character inside the TF1 Tower. Virals videos showed the character near the building's entrance and in the weather forecast studio. In the November 28th, 2008 episode of '' Star Academys eighth season, a special credit video shows kids climbing the tower to reach guest singer Britney Spears who landed on the roof with a helicopter. In 1997, the tower appeared on the title page of Pierre Péan and Christophe Nick's pamphlet named ''TF1, un pouvoir''. The building was also shown on the covers of the books ''TF1, une expérience'' (2006) and ''Madame, monsieur, bonsoir'' (2007).

Gallery

ImmeubleTF1-Boulogne.jpg, The TF1 Tower TF1, Pont d'Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris 6 November 2016.jpg, On November 6, 2016.

References

{{Portal bar, France, Architecture, Television Buildings and structures in Hauts-de-Seine Office buildings completed in 1992 Skyscrapers in France Headquarters in France Mass media company headquarters Television in France 20th-century architecture in France