Paris (AFP)

"The figure has fallen: one in three employees will have to leave and it's disgusting": employees of NextRadioTV, parent company of BFMTV and RMC, protested Wednesday against the savings plan announced in the media of the Altice group.

The Altice group subsidiary plans to eliminate "330 to 380 permanent employees and up to 200 freelance and intermittent workers", out of a total of 1,600 employees, as part of a "post-Covid transformation and reconquest plan", announced the intersyndicale (CFDT-CFTC-CGT-SNJ-UNSA) in a press release.

The parent company of BFMTV and RMC (Altice group) anticipates a collapse of post-health crisis advertising revenue and announced in mid-May a reduction in its workforce, the extent of which was specified Tuesday during negotiations with the unions.

This project was presented on May 19 to union representatives. NextRadioTV, which employs more than 1,600 people (FTEs), said its workforce has increased by more than 50% in the past six years.

- "Drastic cut" -

"This drastic cut is incomprehensible in a group which structurally makes profits", underline the employee representatives, who are planning a general meeting on Tuesday 23 June.

Negotiations must continue during the summer, while the Altice daily, Liberation, presented in a Wednesday a dossier on "the press oppressed" by the economic measures, also announced in L'Equipe or Parisien.

NextRadioTV plans to halve the use of freelance workers, freelancers and consultants and to "pool support functions". The group will also reduce the airfoil in sports and entertainment.

The social plan "would begin with a phase of voluntary work; forced redundancies would only occur if the number of volunteers was insufficient," said group management in May.

"Our goal will be to limit the impact on permanent positions as much as possible and to pursue editorial excellence, while developing the technological skills and sales forces essential to NextRadioTV," said the group.

This refocusing takes place in a context of wider restructuring of the media branch of Altice France: exit from the press activity with the takeover of L'Express by Alain Weill, sale of its subsidiary Milibris, a technical service provider that allows publishers to digitize their paper titles, and new management with the appointment in January of Arthur Dreyfuss, a friend of Patrick Drahi, the big boss of the group.

Altice France also created a surprise in mid-May by announcing its intention to separate from Liberation and transfer it to a non-profit company.

"Unfortunately, we decided to quickly reorganize this group and we started negotiations with the employees (...) because there is no other choice than to restructure this activity", had declared the president of Altice Patrick Drahi, mid-May, in front of analysts.

Altice published sales up 3.6% in the first quarter to 3.6 billion euros, driven by its revenues in the telecoms with SFR in France in particular, and confirmed its objectives for 2020 despite the crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

- Exit RMC Sport News -

While the advertising sector expects to lose almost a quarter of its value this year, NextradioTV also intends to save on sports.

Its sports bouquet, launched in 2016 under the name SFR Sport and then renamed RMC Sport, had managed to attract 2 million subscribers through the acquisition of prestigious rights. But with the cancellation of matches due to coronavirus, the number of subscribers has decreased (the group does not communicate the current subscriber base). RMC Sport News, dedicated to sports information, paid the price and stopped in early June.

With this strategic shift, NextRadioTV intends to accelerate digital, replay and "associated services", which allow channels to be paid by telecom operators. The group wants to invest in podcasts, data, and continue its development in local news.

© 2020 AFP