"This appointment is made on the proposal of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mrs Delphine Ernotte, after in-depth consultation between the donor governments (France, Switzerland, Canada, Quebec, Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Principality of Monaco) and in accordance with the Intergovernmental charter which governs the chain", specifies the press release.

"Since January 2013, Yves Bigot and his teams have doubled the worldwide distribution of their channels (from 212 to 421 million households in 197 countries), as well as their audience (from 30 to 62 million weekly viewers counted in 24 countries) “, is it added.

The one who contributed to the launch in 2020 of the free TV5MONDEplus platform also enabled last year "the Principality of Monaco to join TV5MONDE, a first in thirty-five years", underlines the press release.

A former journalist, Mr. Bigot succeeded Marie-Christine Saragosse at the head of the channel in 2012, after having been program director of the private radio station RTL.

Born in Limoges in 1955, he started out as a presenter at Europe 1 before working in music programming, production and publishing.

In particular, he held general management positions in the record companies FNAC Music production (1992-1994), then Phonogram, which became Mercury (1994-1997).

He also directed the variety, games and entertainment unit, then the programs of the public television channel France 2 (1998-2005) and from 2006 to 2008 the programs of French-speaking Belgian television (RTBF) and Arte Belgique.

Since its creation in 1984, the French-speaking channel TV5 Monde has always been chaired and managed by French people, with France controlling through various public companies more than 60% of its capital.

The TV5 Monde Board of Directors brings together representatives of national public television stations in shareholder countries (France Télévisions, France Médias Monde, Arte France, RTBF, SSR, Radio-Canada, Télé Québec, Monte Carlo Riviera) and salaried directors.

The channel is 46.42% owned by France Télévisions.

France Médias Monde owns 11.97%, RTBF and SSR each own 10.53%, Radio-Canada 6.32%, Monte Carlo Riviera 5.26%, Télé Québec 4.21%, Arte France 3.12% and the INA 1.65%.

© 2022 AFP