[Satellite Today 07-01-09] Eutelsat has launched Fransat, a satellite service providing access in metropolitan France to all free digital terrestrial television (DTT) channels, Eutelsat announced June 29.
    The service, based on Eutelsat’s Atlantic Bird 3 satellite, offers access to 18 free DTT channels, plus France Ô and four high-definition channels. It is a subscription-free service with no time limit and based on the same model as terrestrial DTT.
     “The launch of Fransat underscores Eutelsat’s objective to support the seamless transition of broadcasting in France into a fully digital environment, as mapped out in the government’s Digital France 2012 plan. The plan expressed the ambition for a solution to switch to digital for the significant number of satellite homes already receiving analogue TV in areas not served terrestrially,” Giuliano Berretta, Eutelsat’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement.