Fransat opens for business

Five months ahead of the start of the French digital switchover programme, Eutelsat announced Monday in Paris, the launch of DTT satellite service Fransat.

Now available, this new subscription-free service offer customers a simple and cheap digital switchover solution. It notably targets the poorly-covered areas (between 2.5 and 3.8 million households) and the million and a half subscribers whose households are already equipped with satellite dishes pointed towards Eutelsat's Atlantic Bird 3 craft, and viewing analog TV.

Fransat offers the 18 free DTT channels and overseas channel France O, as well as all DTT HD channels. To access the service, users in continental France just have to get a Fransat pack comprising a receiver and an access card as well as a dish pointed to Atlantic Bird 3.