TF1 and M6 renewed on DTT for ten years with new agreements

2023-04-27 23:54:28

What will TF1 and M6 look like in 2033? Impossible to answer today, but we now know the commitments of the two television groups for the next ten years. At the end of an unprecedented process launched in December 2022, the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom, ex-CSA) formally reallocated to the two channels their frequency on digital terrestrial television (DTT).

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After several months of relative suspense, M6 had been chosen in February by Arcom to keep the sixth channel of DTT, in the face of the competing project “SIX” of the billionaire Xavier Niel (shareholder of Monde individually). At the same time, TF1, which had faced no competition in this unique procedure since 1987, had also been awarded by Arcom a new “authorization to use the radioelectric resource” of the first hertzian channel. Since February 22, the question was therefore no longer to know which players were going to obtain the frequencies held by the State, but to know the content of the commitments of the channels.

The regulatory body announced, Thursday, April 27, the signing of new agreements and authorizations that will bind TF1 and M6 to Arcom. The result of several months of negotiations, the agreements – on which the authority bases itself to establish penalties in the event of breaches – define the obligations of the channels from May 6 and for the decade.

No big bang on the horizon

These texts are a continuation of previous ones, no big bang on the horizon. The two channels thus always promise a diversified program offer, granting an important place to information. They also retain their central place in the financing and dissemination of cinematographic, audiovisual and musical creation. As announced, M6 will for example devote 15% of its turnover to creation, of which 11.5% will go to heritage creation, and will reserve 3.5% for the cinema.

Marginal developments should nevertheless be noted, such as “significant progress in terms of societal commitments and public protection”, said the press release from the former CSA. While the leaders of TF1 pleaded in February to commit themselves through charters on societal issues, the two channels finally anchored their commitments in the marble of the convention concerning gender parity, media education or even ecological transition.

The two television groups are committed, for example, to “the share of women on set (…) tends gradually towards parity, or, where appropriate, maintains a level of parity”. To contribute to the fight against climate change, TF1 will have to offer a subject linked to ecological transition in each of its news editions, while M6 promises to set up a barometer intended to quantify the presence of environmental subjects in its newspapers. .