A row has broken out in France over the pace at which its DTT platform should migrate to DVB-T2 – the second-generation version of the DVB-T transmission standard.

Earlier this week, Catherine Morin-Desailly, the French senator who heads up the Senate’s media and new technologies working group, put out a press release questioning the imposition of the more efficient standard on new DTT channels. “Migrating to DVB-T2 is premature,” she said. “There’s no reason to make French consumers change their equipment again just to access a few extra channels.”

The channels in question are the so-called ‘bonus’ channels due to be awarded to incumbent terrestrial broadcasters on December 1^st this year, the day after analogue terrestrial television is finally switched off in France. The European Commission (EC) has suggested the awards contravene European legislation.

Last month, the French newspaper La Tribune leaked the contents of a confidential notification by the French government to the EC of a projected change in French legislation aimed at imposing DVB-T2 on new terrestrial channels. The newspaper interpreted the move as a ruse designed to delay the launch of the controversial bonus channels, since no DVB-T2 receivers would be available to receive them.