PARIS, France, April 3, 2007 - Satnews Daily - The new Arabic version of France 24 is now available through the Hot Bird 8 broadcast satellite of Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL). This new language version joins the French and English versions of France 24, the French international news channel, which are already available to cable and satellite homes across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East through Eutelsat’s Hot Bird 7A, Atlantic Bird 2 and Eurobird 1 satellites.
The daily Arabic schedule of France 24’s third channel runs from 14.00 to 18.00 GMT, and includes a 10-minute news bulletin every 30 minutes, talk shows, business analysis, culture, weather reports and sporting highlights.
France 24 is a French government-funded global 24-hour satellite and cable TV news channel. It started broadcasting in December 2006 and is run by a partnership between Groupe TF1 and France Télévisions (including France 2 and France 3). It is funded by France with an annual budget of some $128 million, and is based in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Paris. France 24 is available by satellite to most of Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as by cable and antenna to New York and Washington, D.C.
"We are very pleased to initiate broadcasts of this new version for Arab-speaking
communities in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin which benefits, among others, from
Eutelsat’s Hot Bird satellites which bring access to over 110 million television homes, of which over 47 million are satellite homes," said France 24’s COO Jean-Yves Bonsergent. "This is a major event for us. Less than four months since launch, we are now broadcasting in three languages, six months ahead of our schedule".
Olivier Milliès-Lacroix, Eutelsat commercial director, said Eutelsat was very pleased to extend its cooperation with France 24 by broadcasting this 3.5 Mbps video channel in Arabic, which joins the French and English-language digital channels already available from Hot Bird’s position at 13 degrees East. "This choice by France 24 highlights the strong appeal of our premium video position dedicated to consumer broadcasting, for channels who want to quickly build a large viewing audience across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East."
