Newsreels and films

Until the advent of television, newsreels were the only source of animated image available to follow the news. Armies of cameramen were sent all over the world to bring back images that were then shown in concert halls and cinemas. Ina possesses some 1 800 hours of film news that come from several collections, in all, over 41 000 news items filmed between 1914 and 1969.
Ina is also the proud owner of 180 documentary films and some 20 fiction features made during the same period.  

The televison collection

535 000 hours of programmes, 1.4 million different items of equipment, and 4 200 000 archived documents go to make up Ina’s television collection, with footage mainly from the French state TV channels.

The collection contains national and regional programmes. News programmes are distinguished from productions.

To facilitate access to this vast collection, at the end of 2001 Ina archivists launched a huge restructuring of the national archives, organising them into theme-based collections.

The Production collection

The so-called “production” collection covers all types of television: films made for television, series, serials, documentaries, night entertainment, games, cartoons, current affairs and arts programmes, theatre, concerts, etc.

The collection comes from:
- national RTF and ORTF production from 1950 to 1974
- production by national channels since 1975: TF1 until 1982, Antenne 2 and FR3 until 1992, France 2 and France 3 to the present day
- part of La Cinq production from 1987 to 1992
- programmes produced or co-produced since 1975 by Ina’s Creation and Research Programmes department and Ina Entreprise.

The News collection

Ina’s so-called News collection includes TV news, political programmes and debates, news programmes, reports and sports events.

It was built up from:
- RTF and ORTF programmes from 1949 to 1974
- National TV channels since 1975: TF1 until 1982, Antenne 2 and FR3 until 1992, France 2 and France 3 to the present day
- Part of La Cinq’s programmes from 1987 to 1992
- The France 3 – Paris Ile-de-France collection from 1964 to 1986.

Regional collections

Ina’s six regional centres preserve and manage the news, regional programmes, and regional productions made by RTF, ORTF, then FR3 and France 3. The Paris Ile-de-France region’s archives are managed by the Bry-sur-Marne national video library.
Over two in every five images preserved by Ina are stored in the regional centres.