Paris (AFP)

Will BFMTV disappear for good free box? The telecom troublemaker will no longer be able to continue to broadcast the news channel or RMC Découverte and RMC Story without the agreement of their owner Altice. Unless compromised by the end of the month, he must remove them from his box under penalty of penalty.

Free and Altice are engaged since March 20 in a showdown as has already experienced several times the sector (a year and a half ago, an epic battle between TF1 and Canal + had shook the French media landscape). It was on this date that an old agreement expired thanks to which Free was able to broadcast the free channels of the Altice group (BFMTV, RMC Découverte and RMC Story).

Like its rivals TF1 and M6, who negotiated compensation agreements with Internet service providers, in exchange for broadcasting their channels in their offerings including television, Altice now wants to be paid by Free, in exchange for providing the three channels and associated services (such as replay). Such agreements have been concluded by Altice with Bouygues Telecom, Canal + or its own subsidiary SFR.

But the conditions are deemed unacceptable by Free, which considers that it has received no valid commercial proposal.

The situation escalated in early April when Free, after briefly stopping broadcasting BFMTV, RMC Discovery and RMC Story, returned them to its boxes, and was accused by Altice to hack the signal of the three channels.

The CSA, seized by Altice, made its decision this Thursday. While holding that Altice was entitled to be compensated by the operators, he found that Free had no obligation to broadcast its channels. This implies that if it does not accept the conditions posed by Altice, it must logically stop offering them to its subscribers.

- Call for an agreement -

However, the audiovisual regulator continues to call on both sides to agree, "in the interest of viewers", and said to remain "at their disposal to help them".

Moreover, in a statement, the three channels of Altice announced that the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Paris, which they seized parallel to the CSA, had "given them their case" last week in summary.

Indeed, the TGI considered "that Free is not entitled to broadcast without authorization BFMTV, RMC Discovery and RMC Story on its networks", and ordered him "to stop this broadcast, under penalty of 100,000 euros per day delay and by chain from August 27 ", they argue.

However, the court rejected several other claims of Altice, which claimed in particular that Free paid him a provision of 500,000 euros in compensation for its damage, and that the operator publishes the decision, including on his site and via his boxes. The Free group, however, is ordered to pay 20,000 euros to each of the three channels (Article 700 on court fees).

Contacted by AFP, Free did not comment on these decisions.

Two solutions are now possible: either group can reach agreement before August 27, and Free can continue to broadcast BFMTV et al, legally, or they fail, and in this scenario, the three channels may well to disappear from the bunch of chains of the operator, and this until a hypothetical peace of the brave.

Many viewers would suffer: Free has more than 6.4 million Internet subscribers in France, and those who use its television service would be forced to fall back on DTT, or sites and applications of Altice channels .

Beyond the price claimed by Altice, one of the stumbling blocks is that the group of Patrick Drahi insists on the principle that the broadcast of his live channels must be remunerated. While for Free, only the associated services can be. A fundamental difference for a continuous news channel like BFMTV, whose programs do not lend themselves to consumption in replay.

© 2019 AFP