Télévision Numérique Terrestre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Télévision Numérique Terrestre logo

TNT (Télévision Numérique Terrestre) is the national digital terrestrial service for France. France was quite late in the deployment of digital terrestrial television (DVB-T) known under the acronym of TNT (Télévision Numérique Terrestre ), however it has formally arrived on the 31 March 2005 after a short testing period. Like Freeview it will support many new channels as well as the current terrestrial television stations. The FTA channels currently available are TF1, France 2, France 3, Canal + (when programmes are non-encrypted), France 5, M6, ARTE, Direct 8, W9, TMC, NT1, NRJ 12, La Chaîne Parlementaire and France 4. A further four FTA television licences have also been awarded to BFM TV, I>Télé, Radio Europe 2 TV and Gulli which started broadcasts by October 2005. France Ô and possibly TV5 Monde were expected some time in 2006, and are now launched on the TNT network.

Additional pay TV channels were launched in September 2005 using the MPEG4 format, unlike the rest of Europe which currently uses MPEG2. These channels are Canal + Cinéma, Canal + Sport, Paris Première, Planète, Canal J, Eurosport France, TPS Star, TF6, LCI, and AB1. Canal + Sport, Paris Première and TPS Star have non encrypted programs at certain times in the evening. Other chanells have now also being launched, with around 60 free to view channels in total.

Pay per view terrestrial channels use H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC.