Three candidates for French DTT pay-TV channel

Pay-TV operators Canal Plus and TV Numéric and the country’s football league, the LFP, have all applied to operate a new pay-TV channel on the country’s digital-terrestrial TV platform.

The LFP wants to operate a channel to commercialise the rights currently shared between Canal Plus and Orange, following to latter’s decision not to bid for the next set of rights from 2012. Canal Plus has applied to launch its Canal Plus Family channel on the platform, while TV Numéric wants to extend its existing DTT-based offer, which includes Paris Première, TF6, Planète and Eurosport.

The country’s media regulator, the CSA, will weigh up the applications via a public process in December before naming a winner in January.