Licenses Awarded for Six New French DTT Channels

PARIS: The French audiovisual regulator Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) has selected the six new channels for its DTT platform, including TF1 Group’s HD1.

The new channel will be “devoted to creativity and to all forms of French and foreign narrative drama,” according to a statement from TF1. It will also serve as a platform to showcase new forms of writing and new talent.

Nonce Paolini, the chairman and CEO of TF1, said: "I am pleased with this CSA decision, which will give the TF1 Group—the leading private-sector investor in the French creative industries—a fourth unencrypted free-to-view DTT channel. Our ambition is to offer viewers a complementary range of programs around a genre that TF1 has always supported. HD1 will provide an opportunity for talented people of all kinds, from highly-experienced professionals to newcomers, with the aim of showcasing the vibrancy of the changing landscape of drama in all its forms.”

M6 is to launch 6ster, a family service, while the Amaury group debuts the sports network L’Equipe HD. Also scoring a DTT slot are the documentary channel RMC Découverte from NextRadioTV, the women’s channel Chérie HD from the NRJ group and a channel devoted entirely to diversity called TVous La Diversité from the Société Diversité TV France.

The six new services will bring the total number of free-to-air channels on the DTT platform to 25, including 11 in HD.