Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak has asked the Canal+ group to restore the broadcasting of TF1 channels on its TNT sat offer, which allows you to receive DTT channels in areas where terrestrial coverage is poor.
“I appeal to your sense of responsibility and the general interest to avoid depriving hundreds of thousands of households of the reception of all DTT channels”urges Rima Abdul Malak in a letter sent Friday to the president of the Canal+ group Maxime Saada, which Agence France-Presse was able to consult, confirming information from the Parisian.
This ministerial request came after Canal+’s decision to stop broadcasting the free channels of the TF1 group (TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI) during the renewal of the distribution contract between the two parties, due in particular to payment requirement “very substantial pay”the group owned by Vivendi announced on Friday, September 2.
“Improper situation”
“Without interfering in the commercial dispute between the two groups and a negotiation that falls under freedom of contract”the Minister explains that she is “careful that the negotiations between publishers and distributors do not lead to blockages likely to compromise the access of all audiences to the free offer of digital terrestrial television” (TNT).
Or, “Cutting the signal of the TF1 group channels on the TNT Sat offer deprives people who can only receive DTT via satellite of any access to the five free channels of the TF1 group”souligne Rima Abdul Malak.
Et “this situation is not in accordance with the intention of the legislator, which was to guarantee full coverage of the territory by DTT by obliging DTT channels to make their signal available free of charge to a satellite distributor who requests it. »she recalls.
“TF1 has a feeling of omnipotence”, according to Maxime Saada
In an interview at Sunday newspaper (JDD), Maxime Saada reaffirms for his part that “Free DTT channels – such as those of the TF1 group – are free for the general public and must remain so”.
“Canal+ broadcasts more than 150 channels in France, including all the other DTT channels without exception. We do not encounter these difficulties with other DTT players, including the M6 group”he says. “The TF1 group has a feeling of omnipotence due to its dominant position, even before a possible merger” with M6, he adds.
Is Canal+’s decision linked to the hearings scheduled for Monday and Tuesday before the Competition Authority for the proposed merger between M6 and TF1? The chairman of the executive board of Canal+ assures that“It’s a pure coincidence of timing”.
“The contract signed with the TF1 group in 2018 ended on August 31, 2022. However, in 2018, this merger project did not exist. At the time, we asked for a longer contract period, which was refused by TF1. he details.
Outcry
Before the forceps signing of the previous contract at the end of 2018, the discussions between the two groups had generated this same blocking situation: refusing to pay to be able to broadcast channels otherwise accessible free of charge via DTT, Canal+ had decided to cut the broadcast for a time. from TF1 to its subscribers, causing an outcry among some viewers. The Minister of Culture at the time, Françoise Nyssen, ordered Canal+ to restore the broadcasting of TF1 channels on the TNT Sat offer.
This unprecedented showdown within the French audiovisual landscape had dramatically illustrated the rise of operators and other intermediaries in the reception modes of TV channels, to the detriment of DTT (which can be received without any subscription ). This had notably pushed the public authorities to bang their fists on the table, the Superior council of audio-visual (CSA, today become Arcom) and the government had thus stepped up to the plate by calling on the two groups to agree.