By Barry Flynn, Contributing Editor
Last month, with only 4 months to go, France’s national frequency agency, the ANFR (Agence Nationale des Fréquences), launched the communications campaign for the country’s second DTT switchover, which is due to take place on April 5th this year.
This revealed that up to 2m French TV households would need to upgrade their equipment as the MPEG-2 compression standard disappears from the DTT platform overnight (along with two DTT multiplexes); but that it would take until June 2019 for the 700MHz frequencies the government sold off to mobile operators last November to become universally available for mobile broadband.
As reported previously, France’s new DTT platform will become an almost entirely HD affair after MPEG-4 is adopted in place of MPEG-2, with only two channels – Paris Première and LCI – still broadcasting in standard definition.
However, according to figures from French audience research agency Médiamétrie cited by ANFR, as of the end of Q2 2015, 7% of TV homes, or around 1.8m, are entirely dependent on the DTT platform for their viewing and do not have HD-compatible reception equipment.
A slightly larger proportion, 10% (or around 2.7m) get TV from both their rooftop aerial and one other reception mode, but do not have any HD-compatible equipment.
Overall, aggregating primary and TV sets across all French TV homes, 6.3m of these are not HD-capable, equivalent to around 14% of the installed base of TV sets, says Médiamétrie.
This is despite the fact that since December 2009, all TV sets sold in France with screen sizes above 66cm have been HD-capable; while since December 2012, all DTT receivers, whether TV sets or adapters, sold at retail have also been HD-capable.
The ANFR is advising those with non-HD-capable receivers to upgrade as soon as possible to avoid a rush after April 5th as screens go blank, pointing out that HD DTT adapters are available for as little as 25 euros.
The only other action DTT households – which make up 57% of TV homes in France – will need to take is to force their DTT equipment to carry out a frequency re-scan on the morning of April 5th to take account of the re-organisation of the DTT multiplexes.
Despite the fact that the switch to MPEG-4 and HD will take place overnight, the substitution of mobile frequencies for audiovisual ones in the 700MHz band will be a phased affair lasting three and a half years, says the ANFR.
The region of ÃŽle-de-France, which takes in Paris and the surrounding area, will be the first to potentially benefit from new mobile services on the night of MPEG-2 switch-off, with the first of seven regional blocks then being freed up in October 2017, with the rest migrating at three-month intervals after that. The Northern and Eastern border areas will be the last to benefit, on June 30th, 2019 at the latest.
The ANFR has already carried out the first phase of the national information campaign about the MPEG-4/HD switch, which focused on persuading TV viewers to check whether or not they had HD-capable DTT equipment installed. Phase Two takes place between now and the end of February, when TV households will be encouraged to help their neighbours check their equipment status. Phase 3 – in March and April – will remind viewers that the switch is imminent and provide instructions on re-scanning.
Meanwhile, a new subsidy scheme has been announced: this will pay 25 euros to DTT-only homes exempted from paying the TV licence fee; with a free home visit scheme being made available to vulnerable groups.
While all this was happening, two outstanding issues to do with the composition of France’s new (nearly) all-HD DTT platform have also been addressed: first, the matter of whether audiovisual regulator the CSA would maintain its ban on three pay-DTT channels going free-to-air; and the fate of channel Numéro 23, which had been threatened by the CSA with the loss of its DTT slot because of non-observance of its licence conditions.
On the first issue, the CSA had been forced to re-examine its decision to reject applications by pay-DTT channels Planète+, Paris Première, and LCI to go free-to-air following a court decision that found the regulator had committed a procedural error (see previous story).
While most observers had predicted all three rulings would be upheld, in the event, the CSA decided to change its mind about TF1-owned LCI, noting that in the interim, LCI’s financials had continued to plummet, in line with its subscriber numbers – thus the move to an entirely advertising-supported model was justified.
However, Canal+-owned Planète+, as well as M6-owned Paris Première, would have to continue as paid-for channels, the CSA confirmed.
As for Numéro 23, it had been given a stay of execution by the CSA while the regulator considered a last-ditch appeal by its owners NextRadioTV, but on December 9th the CSA announced it had rejected that appeal. The channel’s DTT licence – which currently gives it an HD DTT slot on Multiplex R7 – will now be terminated on June 30 later this year.
This means that, in principle, one new HD DTT slot should be advertised by the CSA between then and now.
Since the standard-definition Paris Première and LCI together occupy the equivalent of one HD channel, having been pushed to the end of the queue in last year’s HD licensing process, it appears possible that if each of them were to re-apply, they could both be successful, since this would liberate the equivalent of a second HD DTT slot.
However, whether the two channels’ owners would want to spend any more money on what they both claim are uneconomic broadcasting entities is another matter.
