INTERVIEW
After weeks of conflict, the battle between Altice and Iliad ended Tuesday night. The signal from Altice's BFMTV channels, RMC Découverte and RMC Story was reinstated on Iliad's Free boxes, which were cut on 27 August due to a commercial dispute. "There has been a decline, but it is better to jump in a few months or a few years," said Philippe Vandel, in Media Culture on Europe 1, Alain Weill, the CEO of Altice.
The telecom group claimed indeed compensation from the operator in the name of the replay of its programs (rebroadcast on demand), presented on the boxes as a service to subscribers. But the negotiations were not successful and Altice finally settled to the demands of Iliad. "We first thought of the viewers.This matter was quite sad because the financial stakes are very low on both sides," says the businessman. "We thought it did not make sense to extend this period too long."
"Operators need channels to invest in content"
For Alain Weill, changing the way television is consumed, from linearity to de-linearity, that is to say from monitoring a continuous flow towards the viewing of programs on demand, also implies an upheaval. of the audiovisual economic model. "Operators have been told that they are willing to match their demands, but for me this is a step backwards to jump together, without any opposition, in a few years." Operators need channels to invest If television channels can not afford to invest in content, [...] people will subscribe to Netflix or Amazon, bypassing [sic] the telecom operator. will lose, "says the boss of Altice.
"We will discuss to pay for our associated services," says Alain Weill, who indicates that discussions on this subject should resume soon. "I am sure that in the coming weeks we will find a reasonable agreement," he concludes.