The Poker Channel France launching in June

European largest gaming TV network said it would launch the first dedicated poker channel for French viewers on June 8th, initially targeting a potential audience of over 4 million TV subscribers. This is due to expand by September 2010 to include a further 5 million satellite TV subscribers.

Poker Channel France will be available at launch to subscribers of Numericable, Freebox (the TV service from Iliad Group), Neufbox (SFR) and Bbox (Bouygues Telecom), and will offer French-language coverage of all major events including the WSOP, EPT and WPT; tutorial shows, daily news updates and exclusive tournaments such as the European Cash Game (season 3), to be filmed later this year in Paris.

The launch is designed to coincide with the partial liberalisation of the French online gaming market this Summer and The Poker Channel said that it is in developed discussions with several leading online gaming operators about a long-term exclusive marketing partnership to begin in June.

“We’re delighted to be launching a channel that is 100% French, and to finally give both advertisers and viewers what they’ve been demanding for so long. This is a fantastic opportunity to promote the game to an even larger audience, from beginners to pros,” said

Starting from today, The Poker Channel is also expanding its pan-European feed  to include Latvia, with Austria and Monaco coming online during May and June, expanding the channels coverage to a total of 28 countries and over 22 million TV homes.