France 24 reaches 670 000 hotel rooms in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and New York

Its mission is to cover international current events from a French perspective, and most importantly in 3 languages, out of which of course is Arabic - 10 hours daily as of April 26, which gives France 24 a definite competitive advantage especially in this region.

Unencrypted and available free-to-air, France 24 can be accessed in the Middle East either by satellite (Nilesat, Arabsat Badr-4 and Hot-Bird), or through the satellite operators Orbit, Showtime and ADD, the cable offer E-vision, and eventually on DSL thanks to the operator du.

France 24 has recently announced it has reached over 670,000 hotel rooms across its coverage area.

Commenting on the news, Philippe Rouxel, Vice-President Worldwide Distribution, said:

"Dubai and the Middle East are France 24's top priorities. We are glad to say that the channel can be viewed at the Burj al Arab, the Atlantis, the Address, the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, the Emirates Palace and other top 5 star hotels."

According to European Media Survey 2008, France 24's audience is the one who travels the most: 18 nights on average spent in hotels per year compared to 16 for the other international channels (BBC World News, CNN International, Euronews, MTV, Eurosport). It also clearly indicates that in hotels, opinion leaders watch news channels twice as much as other thematic programs, such as sports or music channels, when travelling.

"This is why our partnership with famous hotel brands is so important to us," Mr. Rouxel concluded.

Arnaud Verlhac, France 24 Key Account Manager, assured, "Our continuous commitment and presence with our business partners, including Hotels, but also Airline companies, and Service providers has led us to support activities that are targeting these partners."

"This was translated through our sponsoring of the Internet café at the ATM recently, as well as the cocktail party organized by the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne which gathered their members in Dubai last month," she added.

"Our internet site shows traffic of 5 million unique visitors every month, increasing by 92% in one year," Mrs. Verlhac commented.

"This is why we offer our Hotel partners a listing of their property and grant them extra visibility on France 24.com, on our special Travel page; address, direct link to the hotel's website," she concluded.

France 24 will keep on supporting events and industry related activities in the region, throughout the year, especially in these times of economic slowdown where any help is welcomed by all parties.