Two channels for France specialising in tourism, but with very different approaches, are on the launch pad.

VTV International, based in Madrid, has launched Tele Vacances in France. The channel has been testing on the Spanish market, under the name Vacaciones TV, since March in Spanish and English. It has now added a French soundtrack. German and Italian are to be added later. In fact a German version has already been on some cable networks in Germany since August. The channel is transmitted FTA from Hot Bird, making it accessible to all subscribers of TPS. Negotiations are under way with Lyonnaise Cable and France Telecom Cable. A complementary Internet site will start in mid December. The channel carries short (5-18 minutes) documentary travel reports and similar programming, for the most part sponsored by the tourist boards of the countries concerned. The channel has a team of 15 documentarists to produce the programmes.

The channel will include interactive features using Open TV (also used by TPS as well as the digital services of Lyonnaise Cable and France Telecom Cable). Features include the possibility of downloading a database of hotels onto the decoder enabling the viewer to carry out searches locally. Use of the interactivity is restricted to subscribers of one or other of the satellite bouquet operators, since they are responsible for the return path. In Italy the channel (the English version) is available FTA to users of Telepiu terminals. Discussions are under way for the UK and Netherlands.

Investment in the channel to date has been about Euro10 million, and a similar amount is to be invested over the coming year. The channel plans to float on a stock exchange (which one has yet to be determined) in October 2000. The channel is available free via satellite and expects to get a small carriage fee from cable operators. The channel does not intend to tread on the toes of tour operators, but rather to work with them. It expects the tourism sector to invest and sponsor programmes since it is promoting tourism.

Liberty Channel, the second channel, is specifically an outlet for tourist products. Set up by Lotfi Belhassine, a veteran of the tourist industry (having set up the Aquarius holiday clubs and Air Liberty) the channel has obtained a tour operators’ licence enabling it to sell directly to the public. The ‘programming’ is more of a guide than documentary, specifically geared to the products on sale, with visits to hotels and beaches as well as interviews with returning holidaymakers. Hotels and other suppliers can be present in the guide for a modest fee, depending on the size of the operation. For a small hotel the fee is Euro75 a month. The channel is able to make a booking and take payment (for which it gets a commission) directly from the viewer, either by phone or via the web site. Later on the intention is to integrate the web site directly to the TV, when the decoders enable this feature. The Liberty system trawls through all the tourist offers on the web and makes sure that they are indeed available. "We are not just an online catalogue," said Belhassine. Forty thousand products are already listed. The viewer making a reservation gets confirmation of the booking within ten minutes.

Liberty TV, based in Brussels, has been testing on Belgian cable and will start a commercial service on Belgian cable on December 18. The French version will be transmitted FTA via Astra and included in the Canalsatellite EPG on channel 77. It will be transmitted FTA on Eutelsat from April 2000. Negotiations are under way "with all the satellite bouquet operators in Europe" for carriage in other countries. Lyonnaise Cable and United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) will carry it in basic digital. Liberty TV is registered in Luxembourg, from where it uplinks, and has a Luxembourg licence. Belhassine expects to launch 11 versions of the channel over the next five years. Investment amounts to Fr200 million (Euro30 million) and he expects to reach financial breakeven within three years.

In the meantime, another travel channel, www.travel from Malta, has started transmitting a promo loop from Hot Bird 5 in FTA digital. For the time being it is only in English but according to the promo loop will be in up to eight languages. A complementary web site is on www.travel.net.