France 24 Increases Worldwide Presence

PARIS: France 24 has secured a number of new international carriage deals, adding to its current reach of 125 million households in 160 countries.

The channel is now available in three languages on the Dartybox platform in France, and is expanding in the rest of Europe as well. New broadcast agreements include Belgacom in Belgium, Italy’s English-language Sky Italia, UPC in the Czech republic and expanded distribution on Thor 6 in Scandinavia.

France 24 also scored expanded distribution in Asia. In Thailand, the channel now has carriage on 75 national broadcasting platforms. In Indonesia, France24 is available on the Aora TV package and in the Philippines, the channel is offered by 17 national cable operators. In Macao, France 24 is launching on Macau Cable TV and is available in Hong Kong on Now TV.

A broadcast license has been obtained in South Korea from the Korea Communications Commission. France 24 is also expanding its footprint in Africa, where it is now available in South Africa on Top TV and in Tanzania, with a partial broadcasting agreement signed with Star TV.

Coverage in North America has been expanded through a deal with Galaxy 23 satellite and a new agreement with LeBouquet.tv.

Philippe Rouxel, the VP of worldwide for distribution, said, "Since January 2010, France 24 has significantly strengthened its presence on major satellites and the growth in our distribution reflects our determination to enhance our global visibility a little more each day. With the development of innovative mobile applications, our aim is to make France 24 a genuine news platform available in three languages everywhere in the world."