Onde Numérique has won the CSA tender to operate pay digital radio services.
The ‘beauty contest’ format saw Onde Numérique finish ahead of Mediamobile, the project backed by transmission company TDF, Renault and motorways group Vinci.
It is planned for initial home and smart phone services to launch in late 2013. Full vehicle access will be rolled out in 2014.
“I’m extremely honoured and thankful of this outcome”, said Franz Cantarano, CEO and founder of Onde Numérique. “This is for us a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the momentum of France’s future digital radio landscape, through a large and innovative content offering, which has been designed to be complementary to the French free-to-air radio landscape in terms of content, usages, and economic model. More than ever, we will be keen on encouraging and fostering the emergence of other national initiatives in Europe, on the basis of this first success.”
The operator is planning a package of 64 premium channels, the first such in-car service to launch in Europe.
Onde Numérique has chosen the ETSI SDR standard for the deployment of its service in L band. A partnership is already in place with the SES/Eutelsat JV Solaris Mobile to complement the terrestrial-based infrastructure.
