Economies of 190 million Euros by the end of 2022 have been set for French Public broadcasting. The cuts, fall mainly on France Televisions (160 million Euro) The first victims will be The Overseas Channel France Ô currently on Channel 27 and France 4 which will be removed from the TNT line up, during 2019.

Younger viewers are moving to online video and web based entertainment, the focus groups report , headed by The Minister of Culture Françoise Nyssen who presented the plan back in July this year, its first tracks to reform the public broadcasting, including the strengthening of regional programs or the switchover of France 4 into an all digital format.

The Overseas France Ô channels programming will be concentrated on the other main channels and France Televisions will maintain a budget of 10 million Euros for their overseas co- productions

Bad news for most UK viewers, used to having France 24 news ( in French) .

Sky has stopped broadcasting the French language version of France 24  although the English version is still on.

From the France 24 website:

So from next year 2019 it will only be on OTT ( iptv ) so unless you have a suitable  (Vision)  Android box or smart  tv it won’t be available for you.

Also TV5 monde – Sky channel 717, ended 30th November 2018

and Virgin will stop in January.

Extract  from Sky Forum 30thNov2018:

Hi

Why tv5 monde has disappeared ? No access anymore to channel 717 (french channel tv5 monde), All my scheduled recording from this  channel have disappeared as well. Now we have message “channel unavailable”,

Does it mean we don t have this channel anymore ?

Thanks to let me know

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Entertainment/internatinal-channel-tv5-monde/td-p/2933682

The solution – easy, I can supply and fit a Free-to-Air satellite system  that receive both TV5monde and France24 in French OR Fransat, TNT to receiver ALL the main French channels TF1, France 2,3,4,5,M6,Arte……etc

Welcome to french channels.co.uk   If you would like to see whats happening at home in France, I can supply and fit TNT, Fransat, BIS and Canal+ equipment, anywhere in England Wales or Scotland

Fransat and TNT are the most popular French services , now easily available in great quality HD over satellite. No buffering problems like iptv, always available and not a huge dish.

In fact , if you already have Sky uk or Freesat, the French TNT service can be added so that both are on the same dish. See One Dish Post

RT , originally Russia Today, is to launch its French service , based in Boulogne Billancourt just outside Paris, as a satellite and terrestrial channel this coming month.  The service is Mpeg4 ( HD )

Update: RT frequency on the Astra 1 (TNT) satellite : 11376 s/r 22000 , the  English HD and Spanish HD services from RT are on the same frequency. All channels FTA free to air

On the Eutelsat ( Fransat) Satellite frequency is 11595 s/r 29950 HD  it is also FTA.

RT will no doubt be providing their usual “interesting mix” and Russian slant on French Affairs on the new channel. Xenia Fedorova the President of RT France commented: “France is a country with a storied legacy of respect for the freedom of expression and embrace of new ideas. We have created a platform dedicated to profiling the widest range of opinions in France and beyond”

Certainly Mr Macron, outspoken critic of RT during his election campaign will have more to say on RTs reporting, especially on the RT website…. keep watching!

Oh Dear, more bad news!

for all those with FTA ( free to air) receivers, your favourite channels France 2, 3 and 4 are  to finish in mid November this year.

The announcement came at the end of October, bringing to an end the free reception of these channels going back to the analogue transmissions pre 2011 and to TPS back in 2002 .  The channels will go between 16th and 22nd  of November 2016.

So, if you currently rely on these Free channels from Eutelsat 5w ( formerly known as Atlantic Bird 3 ) what can you do?

Channels affected: France 2, France 3, France 4, France ô and LCP

The solution if you just require French channels, would be to purchase a Fransat HD receiver.

OR

If you require multi language reception, for example Italian, Spanish, German …. as well as the French channels, it will certainly be more difficult, as the current cam units are NOT suitable for STB  ( set top box ) type receivers, but will work in some recent tv receivers. Due to piracy the encryption  has been upgraded, due to rights issues the encryption now includes cam functions, most importantly recordings. The result is, they have made it as hard as possible to use anything but an original Fransat box.

To a degree, the Fransat receivers can be used to tune in other satellites, but organising the resulting channels is very limited. Some STBs from Fransat are better than others and I’ll be  testing out the various models and reporting here as time goes on. The Humax for example is looking like the best so far.

One point to watch is firmware/software updates. Like Skyboxes, updates completely wipe out any customisation you have made to your Fransat box, so its important to make a note exactly how you retune , to gain back your Italian or Spanish etc. after the update has been completed.  This generally will come down to noting which port on your dish switch ( diseqc switch) is connected to which LNB. Once that has been set up, tuning ” recherche globale” is fairly easy.  Use the favourite selection system to store the non french channels.