In its official statement on November 28, 2008, the Higher Audiovisual Council defined new zones for the extension of the DTT coverage, announcing a list of 77 transmitters. The commissioning will occur before the end of 2008.
Among these new zones is the La Madone d’Utelle transmitter. Its commissioning, as indicated by the CSA, will take place on December 19.
The CSA had defined the arrival of DTT in the areas of Grasse and Utelle in July 2008. Only the first of these zones could be covered within the announced timeframe, due to technical issues related to the availability of frequencies. The commissioning of the La Madone d’Utelle relay constitutes a technical effort that will allow both the combination of analog and digital broadcasts and the management of secondary repeaters in the high country.
Its commissioning will increase the number of operational transmitters in the Alpes-Maritimes to six, pending the announced openings in Contes and Levens before the summer of 2009. Ultimately, these installations will allow coverage to exceed 90% in the department. The minimum coverage objective imposed in each department nationwide for the end of 2008 is set at 75%.
Affected at different coverage levels according to terrain constraints will be the communes of:
ANTIBES, BAIROLS, BEZAUDUN-LES-ALPES, BOUYON, CARROS, CASTAGNIERS, COLOMARS, DURANUS, GATTIERES, LA TOUR, LE-BROC, LES-FERRES, LEVENS, MASSOINS, REVEST-LES-ROCHES, ROURE, SAINT-BLAISE, SAINT-LAURENT-DU-VAR, TOUET-SUR-VAR, TOURNEFORT, UTELLE, and VILLARS-SUR-VAR.
All viewers currently receiving analog television from La Madone d’Utelle will thus have the possibility to access the 18 free DTT channels, under the double condition of having a reception antenna installation adapted to the new DTT channels and either a terrestrial digital adapter or a recent television with an integrated adapter.
The new DTT channels will be channels 31, 34, 38, 42, and 49, for multiplexes R1, R2, R3, R4, and R6.
