TFO is a Canadian French language educational television channel and media organization serving the province of Ontario. It is owned by the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority (OTELFO), a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario and operating as Groupe Média TFO. It is the only French-language television service in Canada that operates entirely outside Quebec. The network airs cultural programming, including blocks of French-language children's programs, along with original series, documentaries, and films. The network was first established in 1985 as La Chaîne Française, a spin-off of the provincial English-language public broadcaster TVO, later re-branding as TFO in 1995. The network operated under the auspices of TVO until 2007, when it was spun off into an autonomous agency. TFO is available on multichannel television providers throughout Ontario; all cable and IPTV providers in the province are required to carry it on their basic tier. TFO is also carried nationally on the Bell Satellite TV and Shaw Direct satellite television services. The network previously broadcast over-the-air in some communities in Eastern and Northern Ontario with significant Franco-Ontarian populations; these transmitters ceased operations in 2012. History When TVO (then known as TVOntario) launched in 1970, it aired French-language programming on Sundays from noon until sign-off. By the 1980s, the provincial government concluded that a separate francophone educational network was needed to prevent the "ghettoization" of the Franco-Ontarian community. In 1985, the Ontario Ministry of Municipal and Cultural Affairs, together with Communications Canada, approved the creation of an Ontario-based French-language educational television network. At the time, the only portions of Ontario with access to a dedicated francophone educational television service were the National Capital Region and the Ottawa Valley, which were served by Radio-Québec outlet CIVO-TV in Hull. In 1986, the new network received its broadcast licence from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). On January 1, 1987, this network was officially launched by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority under the name La Chaîne Française (primarily known on-air as La Chaîne). In 1995, La Chaîne was renamed TFO (short for Télévision française de l'Ontario). The company would remain a part of TVO until 2007, when it was transferred to the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority, a separate crown corporation. It is the only French-language television broadcaster in Canada headquartered outside Quebec. For the first decade of La Chaîne's operations, TVO's existing practice of broadcasting in French on Sundays continued, and