The Limeux transmitting station () (mast 1) and () (mast 2) is a facility for FM radio and television and mobile phone transmissions located near Abbeville, Somme, France. It has a tall guyed mast for FM radio and analogue and digital television services. It is the tallest built structure in the Somme.
The building of a second Mast As in most countries, TV Broadcast was a state monopoly in France. As a consequence, when the market opened to competitors, the historic operator TDF had the advantage of already having all the requested infrastructures. By Law, it was decided to permit access of the existing infrastructures to the competitors, paying a rent to the historic operator. The Operator Itas Tim found it more profitable to build its own mast and not paying the rent, thus a second mast was built at the end of 2015. https://www.courrier-picard.fr/art/region/une-nouvelle-antenne-de-diffusion-tele-s-erige-a-limeux-ia174b0n657334 Itas tim switched over its own muxes to the new mast on February, 2nd 2016. But in the end TDF bought the operator Itas Tim at the end 2016.
Analogue services (Mast 1)
FM radio Radio name Frequency PowerFrance Info89.8 MHz2,5 kWFrance Inter93.1 MHz2,5 kWFrance Culture97.4 MHz2,5 kWFrance Bleu Picardie100.6 MHz5 kW
Digital switchover planned date on Abbeville-Limeux TV mast : February 1, 2011. Analogue TV SECAM with NICAM Subcarrier Channel Name UHF Channel Power NotesTF163H380 kWFrance 257H380 kWwill be used for digital broadcasting when DSO completedFrance 3 Picardie60H380 kWCanal+not transmittedN/AThis Pay TV was received from Bouvigny TV mast (in analogue) (Switched off on 14/04/10). It is now only available using DTT on LimeuxFrance 5/Arte45H80 kWM642H80 kW
Digital services Originally transmitted via Transmitter 1, some multiplexes were later moved to a competitor's Transmitter 2. Following the takeover of Itas Tim by TDF, Transmitter 2 was physically dismantled and scrapped due to redundancy with Transmitter 1. Extra compression made it possible to delete mux 5 and then to sell the frequencies over 700 MHz to mobile phone operators.
Following the strategic decision by Canal+ - France's leading pay TV operator - to cease broadcasting its premium channels via Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), multiplex R3 was officially decommissioned on June 6, 2025.
As a result of this change, R3 effectively hosted only two channels: the news channel LCI and the general entertainment channel Paris Première. As part of the restructuring process, Paris Première was migrated to multiplex R4 with a resolution adjustment (from 1920x1080 to 1440x1080), while LCI was relocated to multiplex R6. Télévision Numérique Terrestre the French version of Freeview (UK) Multiplex Name UHF Channel Nominal power Transmitting standard HD / UHD Resolution OperatorMultiplex R1 (GR1)35H80 kWDVB-THDTDFMultiplex R2 (NTN)31H80 kWDVB-THDTowercast Multiplex R4 (Multi4)47H80 kWDVB-THDTowercast Multiplex R6 (SMR6)44H80 kWDVB-THDTowercast Multiplex R7 (MHD7)37H80 kWDVB-THDTowercast Multiplex R9 (CNH)33H2 kWDVB-T2UHD ITAS TIM
References
Télévision Numérique Terrestre http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=75277 Mast Structure http://www.mds975.co.uk/masts/limeux.html Mast photos Émetteur de Limeux (article from which the data come from)