French DTT: new MPEG4 row

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Following the earlier announcement that the free DTT services are to use MPEG2, the French Prime Minister announced over the holiday that MPEG 4 was to be used for the pay services and broadcasters will not be given a choice of standards, as had been suggested earlier. The Government also stated that the timetable for the roll out of pay DTT would be re-examined together with the CSA. Free DTT is set to start in March this year, with a "pre-deployment" from mid January. The government stated that the use of MPEG 4 will free resources that can be used for HDTV and mobile TV. The CSA reacted angrily to the statement describing it as "premature, inopportune, and with serious consequences". The NRJ group, which supplies one of the free channels and is also involved in transmission services, said it was "totally stupefied by a choice that is the opposite of the position of the CSA and the channel suppliers. It will give rise to technical, financial and contractual problems.