For a week now, she has been taking over for the fourth consecutive season the reins of Punchline , the weekly CNews show that, every Sunday, goes around these little phrases that made the news of the week. Philippe de Vandel's guest on Monday in Culture Media on Europe 1, Laurence Ferrari spoke about the standoff between BFMTV and Free, which is indirectly shaking up the return of news channels continuously.
"We are not going to be happy about what is happening to our competitors." The battle [of hearings, ed ], if we are to win, it is with our emissions and our added value, "said the journalist, while BFMTV could lose a substantial share of its viewers. Since August 27, the news channel, as well as RMC Découverte and RMC Story, are no longer available on the Freebox, for lack of agreement between their parent company, Altice, and Iliad, that of Free.
"We have strongholds in front of us"
"There is a movement on the side of BFMTV, because of the conflict with Free, but it would not be very fair to rejoice," says Laurence Ferrari, who recognizes that CNews, ex-I -Télé is still "in phase of learning, reconstruction, advanced", three years after a historic strike, the longest in the French audiovisual since 1968. "CNews is a free TV where you can listen to all the opinions, we have strongholds in front of us: BFMTV and LCI, with the tracking of TF1 to promote the antenna.We are here, and it's not bad, "argues the l former presenter of the 20H TF1.
"On the news channels, we are at the heart of the news, we sometimes do the news.We saw it with the 'yellow vests'," says Laurence Ferrari. "It's up to us to take responsibility, retreat and not pit people against each other," she says.
Reform a pair with Thomas Hugues?
Thirteen years we had not seen them together on the same set. Last January, CNews spectators certainly felt like they were "already seen", discovering Laurence Ferrari and Thomas Hugues side by side. Married for 14 years, the two journalists also presented Seven to Eight as a duet for six years. Newly arrived on CNews to animate the 16h-18h, the animator had then had to assure the passage of antenna to his ex-wife.
At the microphone of Philippe Vandel, Laurence Ferrari admits having pushed his direction to recruit his ex-husband. "For me, he's the best audiovisual journalist in France, obviously he was a wonderful recruit for CNews." And while the latter told TV Star that he would be ready to host a show again with Laurence Ferrari, the journalist is rather open to the idea: "Why not? I did not know he was supportive. will. " But on the condition of "not doing again what one has already done".