France - Current situation - History

17.10.2012

Over the years, France has experimented with all formats of the Eureka 147 family, DAB, DAB+ and DMB comparing the benefits of all parts of the standard. At the end of 2007, France’s regulator, the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA) announced that the official standard for digital radio in France would be DMB-A, to be marketed as Radio Numérique Terrestre (RNT). 

Roll out of terrestrial digital radio was scheduled to start in December 2009 but was postponed amid opposition from several sources, including private radio operators. The Prime Minister commissioned a further report by David Kessler, former chief executive of Radio France, which was published in mid-2011 and suggested that the conditions had not been met for the full scale deployment of digital radio in France. The report suggested a moratorium of two to three years during which time the French market would look at the deployment of digital radio in the rest of Europe. The report also stated that the government approved the CSA’s decision to allow further trials to continue.

The CSA is responsible for taking the findings of the Kessler report forward and in order to do this set up an ‘Observatory’ which includes all of the industry players. The publication of the Kessler report meant the market could move forward after a period of stagnation and to this end various trials were put onair (Nantes, Marseille and Lyon).

In January 2012 it was reported by the French newspaper ‘Les Echos’ that the CSA had requested the Ministry of Industry to include DAB+ in the technical standard for France. The consultation for this closed in May 2012 and no further news has been released on whether this will go ahead. 

The CSA published a timetable for a call for applications for tenders for digital terrestrial licences (DAB+) for France’s next 20 biggest cities which will add up to 62% coverage. It is expected that services will be on-air for these licenses by the end of 2012.   

15.10.2012

Over the years, France has experimented with all formats of the Eureka 147 family, DAB, DAB+ and DMB comparing the benefits of all parts of the standard . At the end of 2007, France’s regulator, the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA) announced that the official standard for digital radio in France would be DMB-A, to be marketed as Radio Numérique Terrestre (RNT) 

Roll out of terrestrial digital radio was scheduled to start in December 2009 but was postponed amid opposition from several sources, including private radio operators . The Prime Minister commissioned a further report by David Kessler, former chief executive of Radio France, which was published in mid-2011 and suggested that the conditions had not been met for the full scale deployment of digital radio in France . The report suggested a moratorium of two to three years during which time the French market would look at the deployment of digital radio in the rest of Europe . The report also stated that the government approved the CSA’s decision to allow further trials to continue.

The CSA is responsible for taking the findings of the Kessler report forward and in order to do this set up an ‘Observatory’ which includes all of the industry players . The publication of the Kessler report meant the market could move forward after a period of stagnation and to this end various trials were put onair (Nantes, Marseille and Lyon).

In January 2012 it was reported by the French newspaper ‘Les Echos’ that the CSA had requested the Ministry of Industry to include DAB+ in the technical standard for France . The consultation for this closed in May 2012 and no further news has been released on whether this will go ahead 

The CSA published a timetable for a call for applications for tenders for digital terrestrial licences (DAB+) for France’s next 20 biggest cities which will add up to 62% coverage . It is expected that services will be on-air for these licenses by the end of 2012   

31.01.2012

Over the years, France has experimented with all formats in the Eureka 147 family, DAB, DAB+ and DMB, comparing the benefits all parts of the standard offer.

At the end of 2007, France's regulator, the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA) announced that the official standard for digital radio in France would be DMB-A, to be marketed as Radio Numérique Terrestre (RNT).   (It is worth noting that DMB-A differs from the DMB in use in Korea because the audio codecs are different.)

In March 2008, the CSA published a call for tenders for terrestrial digital radio licences.  It received an enthusiastic response with approximately 300 plus applications and in 2009 the licences were allocated in three main towns: Paris, Marseille-Aix and Nice-Cannes. Following this in January 2009 a law was passed setting out a three step programme of integration of digital radio into all receivers including those in cars. It stated that on the 1st September 2013 all radio receivers must be digital enabled, including those in cars.

Roll out of France’s proposed digital terrestrial radio system, which was scheduled to start in December 2009, was postponed. The move comes amid opposition from several sources - including private radio operators arguing that the cost would be prohibitive and the expected financial returns insufficient. For that reason, the CSA asked the French government to express a strong commitment to digitalization of radio in the country.

To answer this request from the CSA, the Prime Minister requested a further report to be written on the status of digital radio and the views of the different players within the industry. This report was written by David Kessler, former chief executive of Radio France.

Mr Kessler submitted a 22-page interim report on the planned launch of digital terrestrial radio in France to the government on 23 October 2010. This is the third such report on the topic that the government has commissioned in the last year the others coming from Mr Marc Tessier and Mr Hamlin. Mr Kessler’s interim report summarized the existing position of the main players in France (public radio, commercial radio networks, local stations, etc.), but it also outlined some wider market issues.

The final Kessler report was published in mid 2011 it suggests that the conditions have not been met for the full scale deployment of digital radio in France and suggested a moratorium on launching. During this moratorium,  2-3 years, the French market will look at the deployment of digital radio in the rest of Europe. Also, CSA and the whole radio industry will look at possible business models and all digital radio technologies. In the report it also states that the Government approves of the CSA's decision to allow further trials to continue.

The CSA is now responsible for taking the findings of the Kessler report forward and in order to do this has set up a 'Observatory' which includes all of the industry players.

The publication of the Kessler report means the market can now move forward after a period of stagnation and to this end various trial are either on-air (RNT Lyon) or planned a positive step towards digital radio.

The full English version of the Kessler report is available to WorldDMB members.

In January 2012 it was reported by the French newspaper 'Les Echos' that the CSA has requested that the Ministry of Industry include DAB+ in the technical standard for France.