TMC (pronounced [te ɛm se]; originally short for Télé Monte-Carlo) is a Franco–Monégasque general entertainment television channel, owned by the French media holding company Groupe TF1.

[1] The failure of technical experiments with this mode of retransmission led François Mitterrand, French Minister of Information at the time, to make a concession to Michelson.

The opportunity is all the more interesting because on October 12, 1949, the president of Sofirad Jacques Meyer announced to the board of directors of Radio Monte-Carlo that the French government was giving up on deploying RTF television.

[2] Michelson therefore created the company under Monegasque law, Image et Son, whose initial objective was to constitute a network of private television stations in France.

To calm the concerns of Pierre-Henri Teitgen, the new French Minister of Information, himself opposed to this cut into the RTF monopoly, Charles Michelson ceded all his rights on August 20, 1951 to Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

[3] On February 11, 1952, the creation of Monegasque television was confirmed by the French public authorities who signed the convention implementing the Télé Monte-Carlo option on March 21, 1953.

[4] At the beginning of 1954, Michelson provided a second pledge to the French authorities: he brought the company RVB Radio-Industrie, a manufacturer of audiovisual equipment, into the capital of Images et Son.

On the day of the Monegasque national holiday, Télé Monte-Carlo was inaugurated on November 19, 1954 by Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, in the presence of Charles Michelson and Henri de France.

Its broadcasting takes place from the powerful 50 kilowatt panel antenna at Mont Agel (Alpes-Maritimes) oriented towards the Principality, but whose VHF channel 10-H at the 819 line standard assigned by the EBU can be correctly received by the entire Côte d'Azur from Saint-Tropez to Menton with spillovers to Toulon, the northern coast of Corsica and even the upper districts of Marseille.

The commissioning in 1960 of the definitive RTF transmitter of Bastia on this same channel, risking being interfered with by that of Mont Agel, put an end to the double broadcasting of TMC in bands I and III.

Two years later, on April 18, 1956, TMC produced its first Eurovision broadcast, the wedding of Prince Rainier III and American actress Grace Kelly,[6] as well as the 13th Monaco Grand Prix.

In June 1970, having become boss of Télé Monte Carlo, Jean Frydman decided to create another private commercial television called “Canal 10”, which should be a distinct version of the Monegasque channel.

Thus, Frydman initiated the “Canal 10” project consisting of extending the broadcast of TMC in 625 UHF lines over a large southern half of France up to Paris and received the support of the French Minister of Finance, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

Technical tests in SÉCAM color intended for Italy took place in June 1971[12] with the establishment of channel 35 UHF, broadcast to standard G with a power of 50 kW.

On January 15, 1975, the board of directors of Télé Monte-Carlo under the aegis of Jean Frydman decided to broadcast TMC in Italy, in the Milan region, from a transmitter located in Corsica.

On October 1, 1984, as a result of an agreement between Prince Rainier III and the French President François Mitterrand, TMC was able to be broadcast as far west as Montpellier, France, tripling its coverage (2,7 million potential viewers from Montpelier to Menton).

Following the French legislative elections of March 1986, the government of Jacques Chirac began a policy of privatization that François Léotard, the new Minister of Communication, was responsible for implementing in the audiovisual sector.

François Léotard appoints his former chief of staff, Pierrick Borvo, to the general management of RMC, who enlists the services of Patrice Duhamel, to quickly create a more powerful, more competitive radio and television station in the “great South”, which would extend its coverage area.

The Hachette group, which is competing for the takeover of TF1 in the process of being privatized, sold in February 1987 for a symbolic franc to RMC, the 30% held by its subsidiary Europe 1 Communication in the capital of TMC, refusing to pay for a year already.

Many future star television presenters in France started on the Monegasque channel during this period: Marc Toesca, Valérie Payet, Caroline Avon and Nagui.

In March 1992, despite three takeover proposals made by Havas, Alcatel and NRJ, the Monegasque government preferred to postpone indefinitely the privatization of RMC (and its television subsidiary TMC), for insufficient price.

[19] Since the beginning of the 1980s, RMC has made increasingly significant financial contributions to its television subsidiary, the cumulative amount of which reached 291.8 million francs at the end of 1993 according to a report from the Court of Auditors.

The program appears to be both family-friendly, without violent content, with warm, glamorous hosts, relaying events in the Principality and Monte-Carlo and cultivating a Southern accent.

Thirty years after her departure, Denise Fabre returns to TMC to present Boléro, the glamorous magazine filmed in the principality, Michel Cardoze leaves every Sunday to discover the great South in his magazine SUD, Stéphane Paoli hosts Télé TV every evening and Patrick Sabatier receives every evening a guest, on the show Durant la pubd.

As during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the channel provides media coverage of major events in the Principality, including the ceremonies of the 700th anniversary of the Grimaldi dynasty in 1997 (broadcast in Eurovision) or the Monaco Formula 1 grand prix.

[22] The format developed by Michel Thoulouze for “Monte-Carlo TMC” will remain almost unchanged for 9 years from 1993 to 2002, it will confirm popular success and establish the national notoriety of the channel.

[23] In January 2002, the Pathé group acquired 50% of SSE Télé Monte-Carlo through the purchase of shares in Sofirad, which was finally put into liquidation by the French State.

[24] Pathé also obtained the agreement of the Monegasque government to increase its stake to 80% in SSE Télé Monte-Carlo, which is now in a position to apply for the allocation of a French national frequency for digital terrestrial television.

Finally, the channel resumes live coverage of major events in the Principality; national holiday, automobile Grand Prix, AS Monaco matches) and in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, international pétanque tournament, beach volleyball.

However, on February 10, 2005,[28] a few months before the launch of national TNT, and while the channel celebrated its 50th anniversary with pomp over an entire weekend by recounting the memories of its successive hosts and broadcasting a number of images of archives tracing its history, the Pathé group decided to withdraw from the audiovisual sector.