Depardieu, Denisot… What the first minutes on air looked like

TELEVISION – Nothing predicted such success. Canal+, the first pay channel in France, celebrates its 40th anniversary this Monday, November 4. For this anniversary, the group revealed archives of the first minutes of airplay from Sunday, November 4, 1984.

“It’s 8 a.m., November 4, opening of Canal+” : it is the voice of André Rousselet, founder of Canal+ and former chief of staff to François Mitterrand, who gave birth to the channel.

Michel Denisot, already in the host costume

As you can see in the sequence belowAndré Rousselet continues in a deep voice tinged with emotion: « The president of Canal+, on behalf of the entire team, welcomes those who are in front of their television sets and welcomes them by asking them to be present in the coming minutes.”

For the first unencrypted broadcast, called « The 7/9 »Michel Denisot is already wearing the presenter's costume. Sitting on the armrest of a blue sofa, the man who will become the most central figure in the chain is already very comfortable, as you can see in the video below.

To the left of the famous host, actor Gérard Depardieu, accused by several women of sexual assault, is the first guest. The one who is also ” godfather “ from Canal+ is a long-time friend of Denisot, the two having grown up together in Châteauroux.

“The Ace of Aces”, the first film broadcast

Asked about the birth of channel 4 and competition with the seventh art, Depardieu believes that Canal+ and “ cinema is part of the same family”. The first film broadcast on the afternoon of November 4, 1984 will be The Ace of Aces with Jean-Paul Belmondo.

During this first day on air, stars will parade on the Canal+ set. Among them, “ Johnny Hallyday, Dalida, Gloria Gaynor or even Catherine Deneuve »reports The Parisian. And Jack Lang, the Minister of Culture and Communication under Mitterand, will also make an appearance.

Despite the good humor displayed by its creators, the arrival of Canal+ was not immediately a success story. On the viewer side, the subscription costs 120 francs (nearly 40 euros) per month, an amount which was initially off-putting. Nicknamed “ Mitterrand's TV”, the media predicted, them, a short life for this channel, which competed with the three public channels of the time (TF1, Antenne 2 and France Régions 3). 40 years later, the future proved them wrong.

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