France 5 says bye-bye to Europe

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Last week, the signal of the French channel France 5 on the Astra 1H satellite was scrambled. France 5 is an ‘educational' channel, which shares an analogue terrestrial frequency with Arte, using the channel during the daytime. The 24 hour version of the channel has been available free of charge on Astra for some years, along with a number of other French language channels (Arte, RTBF, TV5, KTO, LCP, Zik) constituting what is in effect a ‘mini-bouquet', available to users of Free-to-Air digital terminals in France and in other countries in Europe. While most satellite viewers in France subscribe to either TPS or Canal Satellite, a sizeable number use the FTA service.

France 5 said the reason for the encrypting was that the decision came from Canal Satellite, who provide the transport for the signal, as part of a "desire to harmonise with the other signals from France Televisions carried by Canal Satellite". Territorial copyright does not appear to have been an issue; more likely that Canal Satellite wanted to reduce the appeal of the free-only channels. France 5 has recently started to strengthen its schedules in the evening, in the run up to the launch of DTT next year when it will have a full time channel. Officially, the encrypted signal is "free for subscribers", althought only those that already have Canal Plus.