France 24 is an international news channel broadcasting 24/7, giving a French perspective on international news to audiences globally. They chose satellite as a major pillar of their distribution strategy, and today have a massive audience of 355 million households worldwide.
Satellite has helped them achieve this by maximizing their reach. The France 24 channels are available on a number of satellite pay-TV platforms. They are also broadcast Free-to-Air, enabling viewers to watch France 24 subscription-free, just with a small antenna. Satellite contribution allows them to reach cable and IPTV operators who receive the channels via satellites and broadcast them on their own networks. It also gives France 24 access to a number of hotels within the satellite coverage areas. In fact, the channels are available in more than 2.5 million hotel rooms around the world!
In the following video, France 24 explain why they chose to work with Eutelsat. In addition to Eutelsat satellites' coverage area, and the number of households they reach, the satellite broadcast business models enable France 24 to reach a geographic area with costs controlled upfront, no matter how many viewers watch the channels. Eutelsat’s market expertise has also played a key role in their distribution strategy, e.g. when to transition from SD to HD in different markets.