La Sept was a French free-to-air television network and production company created on 23 February 1986 to develop cultural and educational programming for transmission via the TDF 1 satellite.

In 1985, Georges Fillioud, French Minister of Transport, charged Pierre Desgraupes with creating programmes for one or more of the five channels of the high-power satellite TDF 1 launched in 1988.

In April 1989, the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel granted permission to broadcast on one of TDF 1's channels, and La Sept began transmission on 14 May 1989.

On 30 May 1992, La Sept lost its role as a broadcaster to Arte, a Franco-German EEIG group created on 2 October 1990.

Michael Nyman released a promotional album, La Sept, containing music recorded for the network.