France leads European HDTV

France’s new ‘TV of the Future’ law has taken an important step towards high definition television (HDTV) on the digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform by allocating capacity for HD channels and mandating HD tuners in HD-Ready TV sets, according to a report by Strategy Analytics.
According to its report, the decisions made in France will put increased pressure on other European countries to accelerate their own policies towards HD on DTT platforms. “Most other European countries are still at the discussion stage regarding the introduction of HDTV on their DTT platforms,” notes David Mercer, Principal Analyst at Strategy Analytics. “France has taken an important lead by allocating the capacity for HDTV and ensuring that future HDTV’s will be able to receive these new channels. The industry will be satisfied that France has set clear policy goals on these important issues.”
Source: Broadband TV News
Item added: 26th February 2007