A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode (or represent) information.
Just like the Roman alphabet (a, b, c, d…) is used differently based on the language (English, French, Spanish, German…), so too are bits (0 and 1) used differently to represent different information based on the file format.
So the byte 10110110 in the file format JPG may represent a color whereas the same byte, 10110110, in a TXT file may represent a letter in a word.
In order for a program to be able to open a file, it must have file format programming in place to convert the bits in the file into information it knows how to use.