La Première is a pioneering terrestrial television channel in Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...

. It has formerly named Radio Télévision Ivoirienne (RTI), (the name of the company operating it) from 1963 to 1983 but in 1983 a new television channel made it necessary for the channel to be renamed to La Première.

History

It was first broadcast on August 7, 1963, established by the then President of the Republic Félix Houphouët-Boigny

Félix Houphouët-Boigny

Félix Houphouët-Boigny , affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux, was the first President of Côte d'Ivoire. Originally a village chief, he worked as a doctor, an administrator of a plantation, and a union leader, before being elected to the French Parliament and serving in a number of...

 who wanted to make it an instrument of development.

On 4 August 1966, two studios in Cocody

Cocody

Cocody, is an upmarket suburb of Abidjan, marked by its abundance of mansions. Cocody is where most of the wealthy business people, ambassadors, and other affluent people live...

, 100m2 and 400m2 respectively were built with quality equipment. In 1973 the station began broadcasting in color.

Following the launch of a second television channel, CH2 on December 9, 1983, the old single television station RTI was renamed La Première.