On January 31, the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HACA), the institution that regulates audiovisual communication in Côte d'Ivoire, published a decision concerning the numbering of Ivorian national channels by television channel package distributors.
Following the example of France, where the traditional television channels (TF1, France 2, France 3, CANAL+, LA 5, M6, and ARTE) occupy the top seven spots for all operators, this decision requires that the numbering system used by television channel package distributors must begin with the seven television channels available on Ivorian digital terrestrial television (DTT) in the following order (which is the order in which they are broadcast on DTT):
1: RTI 1,
2: RTI 2,
3: LA 3,
4: NCI (La Nouvelle Chaîne Ivoirienne),
5: A+ Ivoire,
6: LIFE TV
7: 7 INFO,
This obligation is accompanied by the possibility for operators to allow viewers the option, explicitly and in a manner that is reversible at any time, to manually dial a personalized number themselves.
Distributors have until December 31, 2023, to implement this "logical numbering" system, which will give greater exposure to Ivorian channels and is certain to shake up the audience rankings in Côte d'Ivoire, particularly the overall audience share devoted to national channels.
The question of how satellite operators whose services cover many countries will be able to resolve this issue from a technical standpoint remains unanswered.