By Barry Flynn, Contributing Editor
The DTT spectrum advertised by the CSA last week could lead to between nine and 20 new HD channels being created, according to Videonet’s analysis of the French TV watchdog’s request for proposals (RFP).
New HD DTT licences – that is, for channels that do not already exist – are for national coverage and will last ten years, renewable for a further five. However, SD channels that are already licensed and seek only to migrate their existing service to HD will retain the term specified in their original SD licence.
The outcome of the bidding process remains unpredictable, because it is unclear how many existing DTT channels will elect to migrate to HD or remain in SD in the new all-MPEG-4 environment arriving next April.
This is down to the parameters of the RFP being drawn much more flexibly than the responses received to its second public consultation on the switch to MPEG-4 might have suggested.
In the summary of submissions published last week, the CSA reported that “with respect to the licensing of new free-to-air HDTV channels, an overwhelming majority of contributors considered that the market conditions for DTT do not allow for the creation of new channels.â€
In line with this, “the vast majority of contributors felt that the migration of existing standard-definition DTT channels to HD should be prioritised,†the CSA added.
Yet the text of the RFP, which the CSA published at the same time as the consultation results, shows that the regulator has accepted neither conclusion.
For it provides for three separate categories of HD DTT applicant – of which two are focused on the creation of new HD DTT channels rather than the migration of existing players’ SD offerings*.
The CSA defines the three categories of applicant as follows:
- those with an existing free-to-air DTT licence who want to migrate from SD to HD;
- those with an existing pay-DTT licence or no DTT licence at all, who want to broadcast a (new) free-to-air HD DTT service; and
- those with an existing free-to-air DTT licence or no DTT licence at all, who want to broadcast a (new) HD pay-DTT service.
It is also worth underlining the fact that, despite the ambitions for an all-HD DTT platform, the CSA does not intend to force any existing SD DTT channels to migrate to HD – and, indeed, has made specific provisions for those broadcasters who wish to retain their existing SD services.
Thus, the proposal in its second consultation to allocate a fraction of 95/1000 of a DVB-T multiplex’s capacity to SD MPEG-4 DTT channels re-surfaces as a fait accompli in the RFP – a decision that would not need to have been taken had the CSA been assuming that an all-HD platform would emerge after April 2016.
Meanwhile, HD DTT channels, as had also been originally proposed, will now be allocated a fraction of 195/1000 instead of the previous 325/1000.
For France’s DVB-T parameters, which dictate a multiplex capacity of around 24 Mbit/s, these fractions are equivalent to roughly 2.3 Mbit/s (for an SD channel) and 4.7 Mbit/s (for an HD one).
The complexities of the allocation process can be seen from a table in the RFP (see Figure 1 below) in which the CSA demonstrates what spare capacity remains if the existing 20 SD and 11 HD channels are spread across six MPEG-4 multiplexes in one possible configuration. This assumes, among other things, that the channels currently simulcasting in HD and SD elect to drop their SD transmissions.
Figure 1: How French DTT capacity might look in MPEG-4, reduced to six muxes (‘millièmes’ in red)
Mux |
R1 |
R2 |
R3 |
R4 |
R6 |
R7 |
Channel Names |
France 2 HD 195 |
Î-télé 95 |
Canal+ HD 195 |
M6 HD 195 |
TF1 HD 195 |
HD1 195 |
France 3 95 |
BFMTV 95 |
Cinema+ 95 |
W9 95 |
LCI 95 |
Chérie 25 195 |
|
Local channel 95 |
D8 95 |
Sport+ 95 |
Paris Première 95 |
TMC 95 |
L’Équipe 21 195 |
|
France 5 95 |
Gulli TV 95 |
Planète 95 |
NTI 95 |
NRJ 12 95 |
Numéro 23 195 |
|
France Ô 95 |
D17 95 |
|
Arte HD 195 |
|
RMC 195 |
|
Parliamentary Channel 95 |
France 4 95 |
(Data channel) 50 |
6ter 195 |
|
|
|
(Signal) 9 |
(Signal) 9 |
(Signal) 9 |
(Signal) 9 |
(Signal) 9 |
(Signal) 9 |
|
Total ‘millièmes’ out of 1000 |
679 |
579 |
ÂÂÂÂ539 |
879 |
489 |
984 |
Remaining capacity to be allocated (approx. Mbit/s) |
321
(7.7 Mbit/s) |
421
(10.1 Mbit/s) |
461
(11.1 Mbit/s) |
121
(2.9 Mbit/s) |
511
(12.3 Mbit/s) |
16
(0.4 Mbit/s) |
NB1 HD channels in italics, pay-TV channels in bold
NB2 ‘Signal’ is minimum data capacity required to operate mux
NB3 ‘Data channel’ is extra data needed for conditional access, etc.
Source: CSA, Videonet analysis
In effect, RFP respondents will be bidding for a slice of this ‘spare’ mux capacity, which Videonet calculates amounts to around 44.4 Mbit/s in total. This is enough to accommodate all 20 existing SD channels migrating to HD, since these ‘category 1’ bidders would be substituting an HD channel for an SD one, ‘using up’ only 2.4 Mbit/s.
Successful bidders for a ‘new’ HD DTT channel, however, would be requiring nearly twice that. This is equivalent to at least 9, possibly 10 HD channels if all available capacity went to bidder categories 2. and 3..
* The French text defining applicants in categories 2. and 3. is in fact slightly unclear, and could be taken to mean that existing FTA or paid-for DTT channels could take the opportunity to switch their business models without having to launch a new channel as such. However, we have chosen to interpret the text in line with the declaration the CSA makes at the beginning of its RFP, which states unequivocally that the aim is “either to convert existing channels from SD to HD, or to introduce new services.â€