This is an interim summons, an emergency procedure, said TF1, confirming information from Figaro

TF1 is asking for its channels to be restored to the Canal+ TNT Sat satellite service, the only way for some households to receive television in areas not served by terrestrial DTT (mainly in the mountains).

Last week, the Canal+ group stopped broadcasting the free channels of the TF1 group (TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI) because of a commercial dispute within the framework of the renewal of their distribution contract.

A similar conflict had opposed the two audiovisual giants in 2018, without going to court.

Both reject responsibility for this new dispute.

On the Canal + side, we are assured that TF1 was too greedy in the renegotiation of the contract, concluded at the end of 2018 after the first conflict and which ended on August 31.

Canal judges that in the absence of an agreement, it was forced to cut the signal from the TF1 channels, at the risk of being guilty of infringement.

At TF1, it is estimated that it was Canal+ which did not wish to conclude a new agreement, while others have been found in recent years with all the operators, and we point to a loss of audience due to this cut.

No legal obligation

In a letter sent on September 2 to the chairman of the executive board of Canal+ Maxime Saada, the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, had asked the group to restore the broadcasting of TF1 channels on its TNT Sat offer.

“Cutting the signal from the TF1 group channels on the TNT Sat offer deprives people who can only receive DTT by satellite of any access to the five free channels of the TF1 group,” argued the minister.

#photo1

"This situation is not in accordance with the intention of the legislator, which was to guarantee full coverage of the territory by DTT," she recalled.

Arcom (ex-CSA) had however indicated to AFP on Monday that there was no legal obligation.

"The law does not impose an obligation to take over a signal, this being the subject of a commercial agreement between the parties. Similarly, a broadcaster is entitled to request remuneration for the distribution of its signal," said Arcom.

"The law therefore does not offer the regulator a tool to compel one of the parties, but is in constant contact with the two parties to identify a way out of the dispute", continued Arcom, hoping to achieve this. "a.s.a.p".

Even if they can watch TF1 channels by means other than TNT Sat (via a box from another operator or classic TNT), the cut forces Canal+ subscribers to juggle several remote controls.

This conflict erupted just before a decisive step in the disputed merger project between TF1 and M6, the hearings organized on Monday and Tuesday by the Competition Authority

"It is a pure coincidence of the calendar", swore Sunday Maxime Saada in the JDD.

© 2022 AFP