Digital terrestrial TV is watched by 62.6 percent of French viewers, with IPTV in second place at 27.5 percent, followed closely by digital satellite at 22.8 percent, while cable TV reaches only 8.5 percent. These figures add up to more than 100 percent, since many people watch digital terrestrial while subscribing to an IPTV, cable TV or satellite service. Coming from the seventh Observatoire report on the mode of TV reception France published by regulator CSA, the figures highlight France’s unusual TV profile, with a strong IPTV sector and very weak cable. This contrasts with neighboring countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands and to an extent Germany, which have strong dominant cable sectors.
By June 30, 2011, only two percent of the population in mainland France was solely dependent on analog terrestrial television. By that date, 97.6 percent of all viewers owned at least one digital TV tuner (DTT, satellite DTH, IPTV or cable), up 11.8 percent over the previous year.
Of the satellite DTH homes, 9.7 percent of the viewers have subscription service from Canal Sat or some other, while 3.4 percent watch without any kind of subscription, and 9.6 percent use both subscription service and free-to-air services.