France TV Sport UHD debuts at Roland-Garros
May 23, 2019
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
French PSB group France Télévisions is launching France TV Sport UHD 4K, a new 24-hour channel debuting at the Roland-Garros tennis open. Operated in partnership with the Fédération Française de Tennis, the 4K channel will give free access to the top matches played on the Philippe Chatrier centre court during the two-week long event. Fourteen UHD cameras, associated to 3D sound recording, will cover this tennis court.
Between May 26th and June 9th, viewers equipped with a 4K TV set will have access to the channel on DTT channel 81 in the Paris area, Nantes and Toulouse; on Fransat’s channel 444 and on Orange’s net 995.
In France, the UHD 4K penetration rate is estimated at five million TV sets installed and one million TV sets sales per year. “France TV Sport UHD 4K is the culmination of nine years of technical trials. Roland-Garros has always been a test lab for France Télévisions, and today this becomes concrete and visible to the audience,” commented Frédéric Brochard, France Télévisions’ Head of Technologies.
According to the group, the new channel will find further use for upcoming sporting events France Télévisions will be covering, including the Olympic Games in 2020.
France Télévisions technology partners on the 4K channel include Eutelsat, Ateme, Fraunhofer IIS, Technicolor, Cobalt and TDF.