France’s CSA increases DTT HD coverage
October 15, 2012
By Colin Mann
In agreement with broadcasters TF1, France Télévisions and M6, France’s broadcasting watchdog the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel has raised the coverage targets for the high definition channels carried on multiplex R5 (TF1 HD, France 2 HD, M6 HD). These three services will, between now and 2015, achieve the same coverage as the other free DTT channels (more than 97 per cent of the population, thanks to the 1,627 transmitter sites).
An important stage in this deployment will take place in the next few weeks. The three channels will bring 55 new transmitters into service on October 16 in Alsace, Burgundy, Champagne-Ardenne, Franche-Comté and Lorraine.
To be able to watch these three channels in HD, terrestrial antenna aerial viewers will need search for and store them, as they did when switching to ‘all digital’. This is done in minutes with the remote adapter or TV if it is compatible with DTT HD, as is increasingly the case.