Télévision Numérique Terrestre logo

TNT (Télévision Numérique Terrestre) is the national digital terrestrial service for France. It formally arrived on 31 March 2005 after a short testing period. Like Freeview in the United Kingdom it will support many new channels as well as the current terrestrial television stations. The FTA channels currently available are TF1, France 2, France 3, Canal + (when programmes are non-encrypted), France 5, M6, ARTE, Direct 8, W9, TMC, NT1, NRJ 12, La Chaîne parlementaire and France 4. A further four FTA television licences were awarded to BFM TV, I>Télé, Europe 2 TV and Gulli. Gulli began broadcasting on 18 November 2005.

Additional pay TV channels were launched in September 2005 using the MPEG4 format, unlike most of Europe which currently uses MPEG2. These channels are Canal+ Cinéma, Canal+ Sport, Paris Première, Planète, Canal J, Eurosport France, TPS Star, TF6, LCI, and AB1. Canal + Sport, Paris Première and TPS Star have non encrypted programmes at certain times in the evening.

Pay per view terrestrial channels use H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC.

TNT is the first service to implement Dolby Digital Plus as one possible audio codec.^[1]

[edit] Channels

[edit] National channels

[edit] Regional channels

[edit] Multiplexes