French DTT at 10 faces challenges
March 12, 2015
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
French association of independent channels ACI, which comprises groups such as L’Equipe, Lagardère Active, NRJ, NextRadio TV, and Diversité TV France, is using the occasion of the 10th anniversary of digital territorial television in France to urge French authorities to adapt the French audiovisual market to the new rules so as to preserve the free-to-air national terrestrial network.
The association is also lobbying for TV channels to be treated equally and in the same fair way. For the channels concerned, this would mean TV watchdog CSA might allocating them the same channel number, whatever the operator, which is not currently the case.
With availability in June 2015 set to reach 97 per cent of the French population, DTTgives access to a free enriched FTA TV offer comprising 25 digital TV channels, registering 89.2 per cent audience share, according to Médiamétrie’s latest February figures.
Recording constant growth over the years, the DTT audience results also show the six most recent channels broadcast in HD (HD1, L’Equipe 21, 6ter, Numéro 23, RMC Découverte HD 24, Chérie 25) set further records last month, reaching 4.9 per cent audience share, up 1.6 per cent over the year.
Despite continuous audience growth, the FTA DTT channels are now facing several challenges, mostly related to the financial and ad resources and to the digital competition coming from non-linear TV platforms.