Paris (AFP)
Arte's digital platform, Arte.tv, will be accessible from the beginning of April on digital terrestrial television (TNT), which will give greater visibility to its content, announced Friday the president of the Franco-German channel Bruno Patino.
The Superior Audiovisual Council on Wednesday gave the green light to the channel for this experimental broadcast, lasting six months, said the leader to the daily Le Monde.
The CSA had already given the green light in principle to the launch of such experiments, following requests from Arte and Salto, the streaming platform launched last year by TF1, France Télévisions and M6, he said in February.
Concretely, viewers will be able to access Arte.tv on DTT channel 77, and view on-demand content offered by the Franco-German platform.
And this is thanks to the HbbTV (Hybrid broadcast broadband TV), a technology which makes it possible to broadcast interactive services via digital television, still little known in France.
Until now, viewers had to be content with the Internet (sites and apps for computers, smartphones, tablets, etc.) to access the Arte platform, unless they had a connected TV or go through the boxes. certain operators or third-party platforms (Apple TV, Chromecast, FireTV).
As Bruno Patino explained to Le Monde, Arte, which has been relying on digital technology for years, will thus make its platform "easily available to everyone".
In addition, discussions are underway to integrate the platform into the boxes of SFR and Bouygues Telecom, in addition to those of Orange and Free.
This initiative comes at the right time for the cultural channel, while Arte.tv is currently benefiting from a craze linked to the phenomenal success of the series "In Therapy" by Olivier Nakache and Olivier Toledano.
Its 35 episodes, available on the platform, have already accumulated 41 million views online, unprecedented for a program of the Franco-German channel.
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