Never had a problem with it even after not using for a while
I only watch French tv, I have a TNT card which costs 7 euros and last several years and a decoder box and a dish. In the gite they have the same and with tnt they can have the basic UK channels if they are British, as there are numerous languages available. Im not very tv myself so donāt offer a fancy tv package.
Why are you paying (more) to watch free to air TV? Even if only 7 euros for āseveral yearsā.
Before we built our own home, we were guardiens for a large holiday home with 6 bedrooms, pool etc in the countryside some distance from the nearest town. The owners did not provide TV as their take on this was that people were coming on holiday to relax and recharge their batteries which was inconsistent with sitting indoors all day watching any type of TV - French or English. AFAIR, no-one complained or asked for their money back. Perhaps they re-discovered conversation?
At a guess, probably because many places in France still couldnāt get a decent VHF/UHF signal until recently, scuppering any attempt to get TNT, so people turned to satellite reception, which although more costly, generally provided a better and more reliable signal. The really annoying thing about TNT is there are regular frequency changes for the various channels, and the video standard for broadcasts has been moved about 3 times in the space of 10 years or so, requiring people to change their equipment. Whilst the same can be said of satellite reception with regard to the video standard (move from SD to HD / mpeg3 to mpeg4) reception, at least the channel update is generally automatic. so an occasional repayment to update the decryption card was a relatively minor cost in comparison to the hassle of trying to get TNT over UHF to work correctly.
Where we live, I still donāt think we can get TNT over UHF, every time I try results in no channels found errors, even with a plug-in scart decoder for the TV. Most of the TVs I have seen in older folks houses date back to the early 80s at best, some even older.
Further to my previous post about Molotov tv, for those of you who think it is hard or dangerous to install an external a tv aerial for French tv reception, check out such things on YouTube.
It isnāt hard and perfectly easy to do within a couple of hours.
Contrary to what others have said about putting it on the roof, this isnāt a good idea!
It needs to be on an external wall of your house or a stable chimney.
I did mine a couple of years ago and it took me 2 hours from installing to watching!
All the necessary bits are available from your local Brico - Got mine from Mr Bricolage in Cognac. Total cost including a cable splitter was around ā¬150
All you need
2 wall brackets
4 expanding bolts
Aerial pole
Aerial
Coax cable.
I put mine on the gable end on my house as high as I could to ensure picked up a strong uninterrupted signal.
This was next to my satellite for U.K. tv which points in the opposite direction.
If you are DIY minded or have a friend who is and can help do it , then do it, but make sure you are safe.
Courage
Thanks for this David, but then that means I have an ugly trailing wire from the aerial down the outside of our lovely stone restored wall which somehow has to get into the living room where the TV is. So not a choice for us.
Iāve found that Molotov.tv is already loaded onto our French Smart TV. I think thatās the way weāll go. At some point our internet should be bumped up from its measly 3mb as we are waiting for optical fibre cable which has been laid to be connected - all got stopped by COVID.
Iām coming back to this topic because I have a French family coming this summer and I want to offer them French TV channels via our Samsung smart TV. The Molotov option seems to be the best compromise and Molotov is one of the apps already loaded. Thanks @graham @Hislop1 for your advice.
I just want to check, the app is asking me to sign in - I havenāt done so yet. Will that be a once only event? Or will our guests need to sign in each time they use it? And what does signing in entail? Will they need to set up their own signing in procedure? Or do I just tell them what Iāve done?
Also, the Smart TV shows a MyCanal button for Canal+. If our guests subscribe to Canal+ will they be able to enter their own details and go to the app? If so, in my pre-arrival info should I suggest they come with their signing in details for Canal+ if they have the subscription?
Thanks for any help/suggestions.
The guests shouldnāt need to sign in (as it will be your account and password which you will have set up before hand). The login persists (usually) but often (on our Samsung) itās necessary to reload the app (which is a pain).
Thanks Graham.
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Iād recommend giving it try before the guests arrive so you can appear āexpertā 
I have a Canal+ subscription and it does ātravelā when we stay somewhere that offers the service.
