After the violent struggle of the return between Altice and Orange which had led to the cutting of the chains on the box of the incumbent, the two parties have reached an agreement. The catch-up services of BFMTV, RMC Découverte and RMC Story are back on the Liveboxes.

The media and telecoms group Altice announced Wednesday the conclusion of a new distribution agreement with the Orange group, which will notably allow the return of the catch-up services of the BFMTV, RMC Découverte and RMC Story channels on the operator's boxes. historical.

Arm wrestling

This new agreement follows a violent showdown between the two groups, which shook the French audiovisual scene in September. This dispute concerned the conditions for broadcasting Orange's Altice channels.

Patrick Drahi's group originally demanded that Orange pay him compensation for the broadcast of his channels on his boxes. A principle refused categorically by Orange and its competitor Free, who argued that BFMTV, RMC Discovery and RMC Story, otherwise available for free on TNT, did not have to be paid.

At the height of this crisis, Free and Orange had removed these channels from their boxes, which ended up bending Altice. The group had given up paying for the broadcast of its channels, and had signed new agreements that had initially restored the live broadcast of BFMTV, RMC Discovery and RMC Story in both operators. On the other hand, Altice had not given up signing compensation contracts this time on the "associated services" of its channels, such as replay or the provision of additional content. And that's what he managed to do with Orange.

New agreement on the live and deferred broadcast of Altice group channels

In a statement released on Wednesday, Altice said that the new distribution agreement with the incumbent covers both the live broadcast of the BFM Business channel (which was no longer accessible on the Orange box), and on the services associated with its various channels (BFMTV, RMC Découverte, RMC Story, BFM Business, BFM Paris, BFM Lyon Métropole and i24News). Orange subscribers will therefore be able to catch up with their programs again.

The Altice Group explains that this agreement will allow Orange customers to benefit from "enriched services and innovative features", such as access to some of its programs in preview, content in ultra high definition (4K), or extended catch-up periods.