Originally Posted by Icaraa:
“Dunno but most French territories around the world have full access to the domestic French channels. How have they done it for so long? Same with the US, look at places like Guami.”
This is a relatively recent development. In the 1970s and into the '80s, France's overseas territories had no direct links with the mainland. Various overseas stations had tapes and films flown in from Europe and produced their own news.
Alaska and Hawaii also had no live TV links to the rest of the U.S. until the 1980s (with the exception of some special programming -- Super Bowls, the Oscars, etc.)
Considering that Gibraltar has such a small population -- some 30,000 people -- I'm not sure any satellite link just for the territory would have been worth the expense. Even small French territories tend to pick up their programming from continent-wide satellites, so the station in French Guiana, for instance, is served by the same satellite as the station in Martinique, which reduces costs. Also, until the advent of digital, France's territories did not have the full array of French TV stations. They had one or two stations that cherry-picked the "best of" France's mainland services.
Originally Posted by Icaraa:
“No idea why we don't do it with our overseas territories.”
A major reason is the legal set-up of those territories. French territories are considered a part of France -- as much as, say, Grenoble --, while Britain's overseas territories are not a part of the UK, but rather self-governing dependencies under British sovereignty. In practice, this means that they run their broadcasting systems. For instance, Bermuda's TV stations are affiliated with American networks and are essentially an extension of the U.S. TV market!