Paris (AFP)

New step in the battle for remuneration of television channels that engage owners and broadcasters: Free could no longer broadcast BFMTV and his little sisters, RMC Discovery and RMC Story on Friday, according to the parent company of the latter, the group Altice .

The information was announced Friday to the press by Alain Weill, the boss of Altice France himself. Iliad, the parent company of Free, was currently unreachable to confirm or not the information.

"They informed us that there was no agreement between us, and that from August 16 our channels may not be broadcast anymore, so we have an obligation to inform our viewers," he said. explained Alain Weill during a press conference.

Free has more than 6.4 million internet subscribers in France, and those who use its television service and want to continue watching BFMTV, RMC Discovery and RMC Story would then be forced to fall back on TNT, or sites and channel applications.

A conflict between the two groups since long months about compensation for the broadcast of Altice channels on Free box after the expiry March 20 last previous agreement linking them.

Like its rivals TF1 and M6, who have negotiated compensation agreements with Internet service providers for the last eighteen months in exchange for the broadcasting of their channels in their offers including television, Altice now wants to be paid. by Free for the supply of the three channels and associated services (such as "catch-up" television).

Such agreements have already 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.

- Pay free channels? -

At the beginning of April, Free had already been briefly forced to stop broadcasting BFMTV, RMC Découverte and RMC Story: Altice had cut the signal.

The chains were quickly back on the Freebox. Altice had then accused Iliad of piracy.

Seized in the wake, the Higher Council of audio-visual (CSA) estimated at the beginning of August that if Altice was entitled to be paid by the operators, Free had no obligation to broadcast its channels. Supposing that if Free did not accept the conditions posed by Altice, it would logically cease to offer them to its subscribers, a choice that now seems to be that of Iliad.

The High Court of Paris also estimated in late July that "Free has no right to broadcast without authorization BFMTV, RMC Discovery and RMC Story on its networks," and ordered "to stop this broadcast, under penalty of 100,000 euros per day late and per channel from August 27 ", argues Altice.

However, the court rejected several other claims of Altice, who also claimed that Free paid him 500,000 euros in compensation for his injury.

According to a source close to the record, the amount claimed to Free by Altice for the broadcast of its three channels at stake is around 4 million euros per year.

"In the discussions that we have had, we found a financial agreement," however assured Wednesday Mr. Weill, "but it is especially about the legal hazards of the contract that we do not agree today hui ".

According to Altice, Iliad wants to pay for delineared services (catch-up TV, video on demand, programs in preview in particular) but not the diffusion in linear.

"Separate the two contracts does not make sense, we do not want to separate the two services, the subscriber would not understand it, it would not make sense to offer a service without the other", nevertheless stressed M Weill.

© 2019 AFP