Television in France

Television in France was introduced in 1931, when the first experimental broadcasts began. Colour television was introduced in October 1967 on La Deuxième Chaîne.

Télévision Numérique Terrestre is the national digital terrestrial television service for France. It formally arrived on 31 March 2005 after a short testing period. Like Freeview in the UK, it provides many new channels, as well as the current terrestrial television stations. Like the rest of the Europe, France uses the DVB-T transmission technology.

By 2012, the digital terrestrial television services were expected to cover at least 95% of the French metropolitan population. Five high-definition (HD) channels (four free-to-air and one subscription) were launched in October 2008 using also the H.264 format. In September 2005, pay television channels were launched that use the MPEG-4 format, unlike most of Europe, which uses MPEG-2.

Pay-per-view terrestrial channels use H.264. TNT is the first service to implement Dolby Digital Plus as an audio codec on its high-definition channels. Viewers must buy a TV set (or set-top box) that supports both MPEG-4 H.264 and DD+ to enjoy HD channels.

Analog broadcasts were switched off on 30 November 2011 on all platforms, whether it is terrestrial, satellite or cable. Overseas departments and territories (such as French Guiana and Martinique) also terminated all analog broadcasts on the same day.

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