French TV

They could do it like they do with Politics ___ and rotate the regions every day.

Since November, M6 has been simulcasting the RTL Radio (which is also part of the M6 Group) programme Ça peut vous arriver (It can happen to you) on weekday mornings, which is a radio version of Watchdog.

It's presented from a tv studio unlike other tv/radio simulcasts where a radio studio has been adapted for television.

The format has previously been on television before on TF1 in 2001 which was also a simulcast with RTL Radio.

Isn't this a separate argument though? Doesn't FR3 not have all the regional variations provided at all in SD or HD on some satellite platforms (like the UK Today situation in the late 90s/early 00s on DSat, and in the very, very early days DTT)?

The HD vs SD argument is somewhat different from not providing any regional variations at all on satellite - or is the 'National Regional programme' on FR3 on satellite only on HD?

(The UK is relatively unusual in that the BBC and ITV arrange their own satellite capacity and uplinks - whereas in most of the rest of Europe I believe platform operators do this, and take a commercial decision about regionality. Germany may also work like the UK though)

Of course on DTT at least SD is largely a thing of the past in France with them basically closing their SD version of Freeview one day and opening the HD version the next back in 2016, with channels having to apply for the new slots.

I would assume similar moves have been made on satellite/cable for the flagship channels at least.

From what I saw on lyngsat.com it seems that France 3 is available in HD on the Astra 19.2E satellite and also on Eutelsat 5W satellite. The regional channels are available in SD on the Astra 19.2E satellite, but they are available in HD on the Eutelsat 5W satellite

Worth checking that the Lyngsat listings on 5W are DTH feeds and not DVB-T distribution. If you see Multistream on a Lyngsat listing - it's not aimed at home viewers usually. (Italy and France both have multi stream distribution of their DVB-T networks on 5W AIUI). The FTA DVB-T channels are unencrypted (but 'normal' receivers won't receive them) on these feeds, the pay-TV ones are encrypted.

Didn't know that, thank you for explaining Sir! But if 'normal' recievers can't receive them....then what kind of receiver do you need to hypothetically receive those FTA DVB-T channels?

According to Fransat, who are at 5W, they offer all of the France 3 regions in HD.

https://www.fransat.fr/les-chaines-gratuites/

MyCanal, Canal+'s OTT service has the F3 regions in 720p and the network feed at 1080p.

The French providers use encryption because they're on a wide beam, unlike the BBC/ITV and other FTA channels which are on a UK spot beam at 28E which seems to satisfy the copyright holders.

I've mentioned this before, but since we're on the subject, this book is an interesting resource for anyone interested in the history of French regional TV:


Decitre.fr

The France 3 regions in HD on 5°W are for the Fransat platform (DTH). This also carries France 3 Sat in HD though too for some reason.

Then there’s also the version of France 3 Sat on the DVB-T feed multistream transponder (11509H - this is the unencrypted version of France 3 I watch using a PC tuner card which works with multistream). At the transmitter sites, the regional France 3 usually arrives by Microwave/Fibre and gets inserted into the satellite feed transport stream, replacing France 3 Sat. It runs in CBR mode at around 5Mbps to facilitate this (the other France Télévisions channels are stat-muxed in the remaining space). I guess France 3 Sat is carried in the multistream feed as a back-up in case the local feed fails for whatever reason.

Some transmitters that carry two France 3 regions however receive their own dedicated France TV R1 multiplex via fibre/microwave which has all services stat-muxed, including both the France 3s, rather than using the satellite feed at all.

The Fransat HD versions are actually also all ~5Mbps CBR because Fransat offer a “Fransat Pro” service for communal systems/hotels, where you get a set of Fransat CAMs and cards along with a DVB-S2 to DVB-T transmodulator system that decrypts the Fransat channels and modulates them to terrestrial. The system allows the regional France 3 version to be slotted in in the same way as happens terrestrially (Fransat gets the same multiplexed versions of the channels as the terrestrial network, but adds its own EPG (now and next only) and encryption).

Since we are talking about France 3's regional channels, which is a discussion that I am enjoying, I have to say something quite interesting that I found when I checked the schedules of all of France 3's regional channels. I noticed that all of them have few regional opt-outs during the broadcast day, except for one. I would like to ask why France 3 Corse Via Stella, which is the regional France 3 for Corsica, instead of having few opt-outs during the day like all of the other channels, has instead an entire schedule completely different to the rest of France 3! Why is that?

That's an interesting one -

France 3 Corse Via Stella is actually a separate channel. In Corsica itself, the DVB-T multiplex carries both Via Stella and France 3 Corse (which is the same as the other 'regular' France 3 regional versions, with the national programme and local opt-outs for news etc).

However, because Via Stella also simulcasts all of the opt-outs that go out on France 3 Corse - Via Stella is the version carried on pay TV providers, rather than France 3 Corse. They can carry just the one channel without any programmes being unavailable (France 3 Sat can be watched instead for the non-Corsican stuff!)