11 Facts About Arte

Arte is a European public service channel dedicated to culture.

Arte was initiated as a symbol of Franco-German friendship and had been championed since 1988 by French President Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Arte began transmissions in 1992, filling frequencies left unused by the demise of La Cinq, the first French commercial television network.

For viewers in Germany, Arte was assigned a frequency on the Astra 1D satellite in late 1994, and it was eventually shared with Nickelodeon Germany, later replaced by the new public children's channel Kinderkanal.

In October 2020, Arte marked 30 years since the signing of its founding treaty between France and Germany.

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Arte has been broadcast since 2008 in HD in Germany and France.

In July 2016, the Italian public broadcaster RAI Com signed a partnership agreement with Arte to collaborate on coproductions and programme acquisitions.

Many French-language Arte programmes are broadcast in Canada on the Ici ARTV cable channel, the majority-owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Arte itself.

Arte usually has more viewers in France than in Germany.

Arte Extra provides four “smart playlists” related to different topics such as society, discovery and music which are put together from programmes available on arte.

Since November 2015 Arte has been making selected programme content – above all documentaries, magazines and live arts – available online with English and Spanish subtitles.