In 1985, Georges Fillioud, French Minister of Transport, charged Pierre Desgraupes with creating programmes for one or more of the five channels of the high-power satellite TDF 1 launched in 1988. On 27 February 1986, La Société d'édition de programmes de télévision was created by Bernard Faivre d'Arcier, cultural adviser to the former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and began to develop a stock of programmes. It was chaired by historian George Duby.
In March 1989, the full name of La Sept changed, becoming La Société européenne de programmes de télévision (European Television Programme Corporation). The acronym, however, remained unchanged.
In April 1989, the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel granted permission to broadcast on one of TDF 1's channels, and La Sept began transmission on 14 May 1989. The station broadcast three hours and 30 minutes of programmes per day, with each programme broadcast twice. In June, an agreement was reached to broadcast La Sept's programmes on cable television, and on 3 February 1990, FR3 gave the La Sept a window on their terrestrial broadcast channel every Saturday from 15:00 to midnight.
On 30 May 1992, La Sept lost its role as a broadcaster to Arte, a Franco-German EEIG group created on 2 October 1990. On 27 September 1993, it changed its name to Sept-ARTE and became ARTE France on 1 August 2000.
