A fire on a French television broadcasting site (TDF) located near Marseille, the second largest in France, deprived 3.5 million people of TNT television and radio on Tuesday morning, we learned from by TDF.
The fire broke out on the night of Monday to Tuesday on this site installed at the top of the Etoile massif, said the gendarmerie, specifying that criminal investigation technicians were on site to investigate and confirming information from La Provence.
The broadcasting of 25 TNT channels (out of 30) and 19 FM radio stations is interrupted over a large south-eastern quarter of the territory, said TDF.
The TF1, LCP public-senat, TFX, Énergie 12 and TMC channels were spared.
"We are on a war footing"
The site also houses mobile phone masts.
Customers of operators Bouygues Télécom, Free and SFR are affected, but to a lesser extent due to the presence of other branches in the vicinity.
The site, which alone covers 2.6 million inhabitants, supplies other transmitters in the region, which has an impact on a larger population, said TDF.
It is the most important in the South-East and the second in France.
"We have been on a war footing since last night to find a temporary solution as soon as we can assess the damage," a TDF spokesperson told AFP.
The site is currently closed by the gendarmerie.
The research section is on site.
