Less than three years after its launch, FRANCE 24, the French international 24/7 news channel, already reaches more than 100 million TV households and is available in more than 750,000 upscale hotel rooms across 120 countries throughout Europe, Middle-East, Africa and the East Coast of the U.S.

Aiming to rapidly extend its distribution to the rest of the world, FRANCE 24 is putting Asia-Pacific at the forefront of its global roll-out strategy.

Important developments in the region for FRANCE 24: Because of the free-to-air satellite broadcast of its English-language service on the ASIASAT 2 (now ASIASAT 5) platform since early 2009, FRANCE 24 has been able to conclude its first distribution agreements with major cable and IPTV platform operators, and is available in more than 50,000 international hotel rooms throughout Asia-Pacific.

In order to strongly support its distribution effort on the ground, FRANCE 24 also mandated TV5 MONDE ASIA (via its Hong-Kong-based office) to prospect, promote and distribute FRANCE 24 on the residential and out-of-home markets in the key countries of the region.

For the first time this year, FRANCE 24 showcases its English-language service live at the CASBAA Convention, directly from ASIASAT 5. “We are extremely thrilled with the initial developments of FRANCE 24 into Asia-Pacific. Thanks to our cooperation with both ASIASAT and TV5 MONDE ASIA, we are in the best position to strongly accelerate the roll-out of FRANCE 24 all over the priority markets of Asia-Pacific” said Philippe Rouxel, Vice-President Worldwide Distribution of FRANCE 24.

Technical parameters:
English-language version of FRANCE 24 channel available on ASIASAT 5: 100.5 degrees East – XP C10H – DL 4000 MHz Horizontal – MOD QPSK – FEC ¾ – 28.125 Msymb/sThe Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) today announced new data for subscription TV penetration across the Asia Pacific, noting that the region now has 326 million pay-TV, up 26 million homes in 2009.