French DTT now in 400,000 homes
An estimated 400,000 set-top boxes are said to have been sold in France just two months after the launch of digital terrestrial television (DTT).
According to Les Echos, around 80,000 decoders are being sold each month though sales are expected to slow over the summer before rising to a forecast 150,000 per month in September after geographical coverage is boosted from 35% to 50%.
The industry then expects 300,000 set-top boxes to be sold in the run-up to Christmas, leaving France with up to 1.2m DTT households at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, advanced-television.com reported that the French government had decided to make the MPEG-4 standard obligatory for pay DTT services, due to launch in September.
Last month the French media regulator awarded eight new channel licences—four free, four pay—for the DTT platform, which launched on March 31 with 14 free-to-view channels.
Links open in a new window. The DTG is not responsible for the content of other web sites.