French TV

French Television offers a good selection of channels, there are on terrestrial around 25 channels for free with a simple digital terrestrial box (from 30 euro), or you already have a television with digital terrestrial included.

You should be aware that all analogue channels are due to be replaced during 2009 with digital and from now on it is compulsory in France a retailer must sell all flat screen TVs with Digital included.  In some area most of the channels are in HD (high definition) and offer a multilingual version where a program is originally not in French.  This provides a wide range of films, dramas and soaps from the US or UK.

You can also subscribe at Canal plus, canal sat, (like Sky in the UK), with a range of sport channels, movie channels normally in multilingual versions.

France is the cheapest country for Internet connection which generally include unlimited phone calls within Europe, to fixed line numbers, High speed internet connection, movies on request with around 200 digital TV channels from 30 euro a month, a good deal if you are planning to call your family in the UK.

The digital TV channels arrived by digital cable (optical fibre), this service has existed for about 10 years now and you have a lot of operators have special packages.

Satellite TV

Should you want to receive English channels directly from the UKwhile you are living in France, it is not that difficult; first if you already have a subscription for Sky in the UK you can still bring it back to France with you.  The only detail is depending where you live in France the dish size you use.  In the UK dishes are typically around 60cm in France you need between 60 and 150cm from North to South of the country.
Officially it is not legal to subscribe to Sky from abroad because SKY doesn't own the broadcast rights for the rest of Europe but you can get round this especially if you still have a bank account and address in the UK
Alternatively if you do not want to (or cannot) subscribe to SKY, you also have the option of free view.  For this you need a digital sat receiver, if you get one for HD MPEG4 this will allow you to watch BBC HD and Channel 4 HD and other channels to come.
Prices starting from just a little 65 Euro plus a satellite dish and if you can't install it yourself, check our database to find a retailer near where you live.
With free view, you will get most of main channels like, BBC, ITV, CHANNEL 4,Very soon, channel 5, more 4 travel, and around 100 channels are in the clear on Astra 2.This the map for the ASTRA OPERATOR can be used to check the size of the dish needed.

Ku band EIRP (dBW) Size (cm) >50 50 50 50-60 49 55-65 48 60-75 47 65-85 46 75-95 45 85-105 44 95-120

Image/data courtesy of www.LyngSat_Maps.com