12-12-12 sees €12m Loto prize

NO GETTING away from the number 12 today - 12-12-12 - as Loto organiser Française des Jeux has put up a €12million prize for tonight’s draw and hedonistic Facebook fans are heading for a partouze” (orgy) in La Douze, Dordogne.

In Aveyron, department number 12, people are even asking for “their day” to be made a holiday so they can have a big celebration in the Place d'Armes at Rodez at 12.12.

This is the last time for 89 years when the date’s numbers are all the same, until 1-1-2101 by the Gregorian calendar, and it is just a coincidence tonight’s Loto jackpot is €12m after the €11m pot was not won on Monday – it rises by €1m each time.

Number fans will seize on the coincidence and FDJ expect five million players buying €2 tickets for tonight’s draw. They have only one chance in 19m of winning.

Anyone not interested in the Loto – but lucky enough to have an HD TV – can console themselves with the extra six public free channels being added today... at 12.00.

The channels are: film and serial channel HD1 (from TF1); sport with L'Equipe 21; 6ter from M6 with family programming; Numéro 23 on diversity; RMC Découverte for documentaries, and women’s channel Chérie. They will be numbered from 20-25.

They are being rolled out across the country, with satellite, cable and ADSL customers getting them straight away. Only 25% of the rest who get TV through their aerials will get it first. New transmitters need to be installed for the extra channels and it will not be until 2015 that the whole country will have access.

People with TNT decoders will need to reconfigure them to access the new services, but satellite, cable and ADSL should reconfigure themselves. Some channel numbers may change.

See the roll-out map from the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel at http://www.csa.fr/index.php/Television/La-reception/Le-deploiement-des-6-nouvelles-chaines-TNT-HD-sur-les-multiplex-R7-et-R8/Quand-pourrai-je-avoir-acces-aux-six-nouvelles-chaines-HD Scroll down and click on the map

Elsewhere, budding filmmakers can contribute to the One Day on Earth project, which had previous films on 10-10-10 and 11-11-11. To make sure France is represented, you can add video to the http://www.onedayonearth.org/ One day on Earth site to be edited into a global movie.

• Had France remained on the republican calendar, today would have been the 22nd of Frimaire, known as Bruyère (Heather).
Graphic: CSA website