Bienvenue en France organised a private tour of the TF1 group’s premises in Boulogne-Billancourt
29th January 2024

We met at the foot of the TF1 tower, a 14-storey cylindrical building with shimmering glass windows, on the
banks of the Seine, to take a behind-the-scenes look at France’s oldest television channel and Europe’s largest
in terms of audience figures.
The building, built by Bouygues in 1992, has undergone major renovation work to save energy and water,
and it will be completed in 2022. We started our tour in the entrance hall, where we are shown a large scale
model of the building complex, while a giant screen continuously broadcasts current programmes on the
Group’s various channels, including the LCI channel dedicated to international news.
We followed our guide to the auditorium with its red leather seats, the headquarters of the assemblies, where
he explained to us, among other things, the issues involved in sending teams to international crisis areas. He
also answered our questions.
Then we arrived at the holy of holies: the Media Lab, which we had the privilege of visiting in the company
of its director. Comfortably seated in this immense space with its uncluttered, contemporary decor and wideopen
view of the sky, we watched a film presenting the Bouygues group’s various business divisions. This is
followed by an impressive demonstration of the applications of artificial intelligence to the audio-visual
sector.
To round off the visit, we watched the 1 p.m. TV news being filmed live from a footbridge overlooking the
studio: we had the set and control room on either side of us, and were given simultaneous explanations by
our hosts.
Article co-authored by Catherine Jeantaud and Yasmine Behnam, head of the "Industry and Art Market"
group.