WHO ARE WE? OUR MISSION
ARTE is a European public-service cultural television channel. Its originality lays in the fact that it targets audiences from different cultural backgrounds, in particular French and German. It is composed of three entities: the headquarters in Strasbourg and two Members responsible for programme production and delivery, which are ARTE France in Paris and ARTE Deutschland TV GmbH in Baden-Baden.

ARTE France and ARTE Deutschland TV GmbH currently provide three-quarters of ARTE’s programming in equal proportions, the remainder being provided by ARTE G.E.I.E. and broadcasters cooperating with ARTE. The Members are responsible for submitting programme proposals, which have to be approved by the Programme Committee and are subsequently broadcast by the headquarters. They jointly finance and control headquarters operations in Strasbourg while representing their own interests before ARTE G.E.I.E.’s advisory and decision-making bodies.

ARTE begins with a vision
A vision which is bound to the names François Mitterrand, Helmut Kohl and Lothar Späth. The founding fathers of ARTE believed that a joint television channel should bring French and German citizens closer on a cultural level and promote cultural integration throughout Europe. Creating a television channel for two audiences was a first in television’s history and is still an exception in the global TV market to this date.

After years of negotiations, an interstate agreement was signed on 2 October 1990 by the minister-presidents of the eleven Bundesländer of the former West Germany and the French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang. Within just a few months, ARTE (Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne) was established as a European Economic Interest Grouping – E.E.I.G. (Groupement Européen d’Intérêt Économique – G.E.I.E.) – in Strasbourg.

ARTE’s mission
The treaty for the formation of ARTE E.E.I.E. from 30 April 1991 underlines the project’s significance and ambition. ARTE’s mission is described as follows:

"The objective of this consortium is to create and produce television programmes of a cultural and international nature in the broadest sense, to be broadcast by itself or by other channels, via satellite or any other medium. These programmes should aim to promote mutual understanding and unity among the peoples of Europe."

A year later, ARTE went on air. Today, more than ten years later, ARTE is well established in both Germany and France and is synonymous throughout Europe with high-quality creative broadcasting. ARTE has entered into partnerships with several public broadcasters: RTBF in Belgium,SRG SSR idée suisse in Switzerland, TVE in Spain, TVP in Poland, ORF in Austria, YLE in Finland, BBC in the United Kingdom and SVT in Sweden.

ARTE’s Interstate Treaty (french version, german version) and Formation Contract (french version, german version) can be downloaded here as PDF files.

WHAT WE STAND FOR – OUR MISSION STATEMENT
Our broadcasting experience over the past 16 years has shown that ARTE’s name stands not only for innovative television, but also for the fundamental values set out in our mission statement.

Our Values: Openness, Respect and Friendliness
Open-mindedness towards the world, towards new topics and new narrative forms,and always being open to our audience’s opinions: that’s what we mean by openness.

The range of our audience’s opinions and points of view, and the artistic freedom of authors, directors and producers all matter to us: that’s what we mean by respect.

Lastly, we strive to create thought-provoking, emotionally engaging programmes that enrich our multicultural audience’s lives. Our channel should reflect our audience’s interests, passions and dreams. In other words, they should experience closeness and friendliness.


WHAT WE DO - OUR CHANNEL
The ARTE channel offers an exceptionally broad spectrum of topics and programme genres.

ARTE – Means quality, variety and depth
Top-quality, topical evening schedules, documentaries, feature films, TV films, music, theatre, informative programmes and much, much more can be seen on ARTE, with the exceptions of talk shows and sports programmes. The different programmes invite you to discover other people, regions and ways of life, to experience culture in Europe and to better understand political and social developments in today’s world.

Of the programmes broadcast by ARTE, 40% come from both ARTE Germany and ARTE France, and 20% from its Head Office. Some of the programmes provided by the members are not only produced in France and Germany, but also in other European countries.

In total, roughly 30% of the programmes are produced in Germany, 30% in France, 30% in other European countries and around 10% overseas (North and South America, Asia, Africa and Australia).

Approximately 40% of all programmes are documentaries, 20% are feature films and 10% are films made for television. Twenty per cent of our programming is assigned to information programmes and a further 10% to music, theatre and dance.

The number of new productions on our channel is particularly significant, since 75% of ARTE evening programmes are first runs.

ARTE programmes can be received simultaneously in France and Germany seven days a week, 24 hours a day, via digital and terrestrial transmission, cable network and satellite.