The French regulator, the CSA, will shortly advertise three new pay-TV and two new free-to-air HD slots on its DTT platform. Meanwhile, France Ô, the public service channel targeted at viewers from the country’s overseas territories, will be rolled out nationally in the coming weeks.

The decisions result from a public consultation triggered by two pay-DTT channels, AB1 and Canal J, handing back their licences last year.

The new services will launch next year, and will be spread across the six existing multiplexes (R1-R6) as well as two new ones, R7 and R8, which will be opened up as a result of analogue television being switched off region-by-region between now and the end of 2011.

Farncombe’s interpretation of today’s CSA announcement is that the new DTT multiplex configuration will be as in the table below:

R1	R2	R3	R4
France 2	i>télé	Canal+ HD	M6
France 3	BFM TV	C+ Cinéma	W9
Local/ France 3	Direct 8	C+ Sport	Paris 1ère
France 5	Gulli	Planète	NT1
France Ô	Europe 2 TV	TPS Star	Arte HD
LCP	France 24	New pay-TV slot TBA
R5	R6	R7	R8
France 2 HD	TF1	New pay-TV slot TBA	Gifted channel to TF1 TBA
TF1 HD	LCI	New pay-TV slot TBA	Gifted channel to M6 TBA
M6 HD	Eurosport	New FTA HD slot TBA	Gifted channel to Canal+ TBA
	TMC	New FTA HD slot TBA	Other channels TBA
	NRJ12
	TF6
	Arte

Source: CSA, Farncombe analysis (Note: Pay-DTT channels in italics, HD channels in bold)

The allocation of three new pay-DTT channels is designed to boost the attractiveness of pay-TV on the French DTT platform, which has so far performed poorly.Meanwhile, the creation of new free-to-air HD channels should make it easier for the DTT platform to compete with satellite and cable, which both enjoy superior bandwidth and much larger HD offers.

French rules which mandate the inclusion of HD DTT tuners in TV sets already favour the platform. With 46.1% of French homes owning an HD-compatible TV display at the end of 2009, the new services should be able to benefit from a mature addressable market.