The hatchet is buried. In a joint press release, the TF1 and Canal + groups announce that they have reached a long-term distribution agreement which will allow the group’s channels belonging to Bouygues to be broadcast again on the Canal + bouquets.
Subscribers to the offers of the Canal + group will be able to find the channels of the TF1 group from Monday. “Subscribers to Canal + group offers and TNTSAT users will find from Monday November 7 all the live and replay programs of TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films, LCI and the major events to come: the Fifa World Cup, Qatar 2022 ™, the Late with Alain Chabat, Dance with the Stars, the Star Academy… “, can we read in the brief press release sent this Friday evening.
Justice had given reason to the Canal group
The crisis therefore lasted more than two months. On September 2, the encrypted channel decided to cut off its customers’ access to all the channels of the TF1 group as well as to its replay offers. This radical decision was justified on the side of Canal by the inability of the two groups to seal a new distribution agreement, the previous one having expired on the previous September 1st. The two camps have since continued to pass the buck. Canal + assured that TF1 was too greedy in the renegotiation of the contract, concluded at the end of 2018 after a similar conflict. TF1 claimed that it was its rival who did not wish to find an agreement.
The case had gone so far that justice had to get involved, giving reason twice to the actions of the Canal group. The Court of Appeal thus noted that the law did not require Canal + to distribute the TF1 signal on TNT Sat. This long cut had strongly penalized the audiences achieved by the TF1 group, since all of its five channels had for example recorded an audience share of 25.6% in October, against 27.7% a year earlier, according to Mediametry.