[1] The network is available across Europe on satellite via Astra 19.2°E and Eutelsat Hot Bird (13°E) (both free-to-air), online and via TVPlayer.

In January 2006, TV5 underwent a major overhaul, including rebranding as "TV5Monde" to stress its focus as a global network ("Monde" is French for "World").

TV5 was formed on 2 January 1984, under the guidance of Claude Cheysson, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, and TV5 President Serge Adda, by five public television channels: TF1, Antenne 2 and FR3 from France, the Swiss Télévision Suisse Romande and the Belgian RTBF.

Its coverage was expanded in 1996 with the launch of its Asian-Pacific signal with TV5 Asie-Pacifique and the subscription channel TV5 États-Unis in the United States.

The national governments in charge of the five participants gave an agreement to turn management of TV5 États-Unis and TV5 Amérique Latine over to TV5 Monde, the new name for the channel's head operations in Paris.

International conflicts arising from the decision to go to war by the United States and the United Kingdom in which France notably refused to participate had relaunched the debate over whether to create an international news channel from a French perspective, resulting in the 2006 launch of France 24.

With the creation of France 24 placing TV5's own existence in doubt, its new CEO, Jean-Jacques Aillagon decided from 1 January 2006 to rename the channel to TV5Monde to underline its status better as the only international Francophone channel available on-air (France 24 was then available only in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the United States cities of New York and Washington, DC, in French).

As well as being part of the TV5 family, TV5 Quebec Canada has its own management and its schedule is made with the Canadian viewer in mind and to conform to Canadian broadcast regulations, which, sets domestic production quotas and limits foreign investors to a minority stake.

In 2009, TV5Monde split its Asia-Pacific signal into two, one of them being TV5Monde Asie, a feed for territories located between GMT+8 (Hong Kong) and GMT+12 (New Zealand).

[3][4][5] On the evening of 8 April 2015, TV5Monde was the victim of a cyberattack by a hacker group known as "CyberCaliphate", which claimed to have ties to the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

[6] Various computerised internal administrative and support systems including e-mail were also still shut down or otherwise inaccessible because of the attack.

[6][7] The hackers also hijacked TV5Monde's Facebook and Twitter pages to post the personal information of relatives of French soldiers participating in actions against the organization, along with messages critical of President François Hollande arguing that the January 2015 terrorist attacks were "gifts" for his "unforgivable mistake" of partaking in conflicts that "[serve] no purpose".

[6][8] As part of the official response to the attack, the French Minister of Culture and Communications, Fleur Pellerin, called for an emergency meeting of the heads of various major media outlets and groups.

[7] French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the attack "an unacceptable insult to freedom of information and expression".

[7] A colleague in his cabinet, the Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, attempted to allay public concern by stating that France "had already increased its anti-hacking measures to protect against cyber-attacks" since the aforementioned terrorist attacks on January earlier that year, which had left a total of 20 people dead.

[7] French investigators later discounted the theory that the attack was connected to ISIL but instead suspected the APT28 or Pawn Storm, a hacking group with alleged links to the Russian government.

[9][10] Investigators concluded that the attack was a test of the same sorts of cyberweaponry that were used to switch off a power station in Ukraine.

In the United States, TV5MONDE États-Unis is one of several foreign-language premium channels offered through International Media Distribution.

Purportedly because of underfunding, TV5MONDE cannot yet offer accurate advance scheduling or on-time programming, but progress is being made in those fronts.

[17] In Mexico and most countries of Central America and the Caribbean, TV5MONDE Amérique Latine & Caraïbes is available SKY México, a satellite television platform, on Channel 277.

In South Korea, ISP provider Qrix offers TV5 on its premium HD cable package.