The news, with the air of pressure blow, put in turmoil the world of television. Just before a decisive step in the disputed merger project between TF1 and M6 which are the hearings organized Monday and Tuesday by the Competition Authority of the leaders of the two groups, Canal announced this Friday, September 2 the interruption of the broadcasting of TF1 group channels. A new episode in the historic showdown between the two audiovisual giants.
“We very strongly deplore this situation which penalizes consumers”, assures TF1 in a press release, highlighting its agreements “found in recent years with all operators”. “The TF1 group is distributed by all distributors Free, SFR, Bouygues Telecom, Orange, Molotov and Salto”, we insist. Subscribers to the encrypted channel will have to juggle remote controls to follow their favorite series “Joséphine Ange Gardien” and “Camping Paradis”.
Canal denounced in a press release “unfounded and unreasonable demands” on the part of TF1 during negotiations for the renewal of the distribution contract. It ended on Thursday. The channel headed by Maxime Saada assures that his partner was too greedy speaking of “a very substantial remuneration” for “channels which are accessible for free”. This is what pushed the group to take this radical decision. TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI, the five television channels of TF1, will therefore no longer be accessible on the Canal mosaic in mainland France.
The conflict seems to be over the long term since Canal claims to be able to “offer the entirety” of the Football World Cup which will take place from November 20 to December 18 to its subscribers, “backed by its partnership with beIN Sports who owns the rights. An event essential to the good health of the first channel. It is therefore a stroke of pressure in order, observe several observers. This is not the first time that Canal has been offensive towards its partner, but also rival, TF1.
Before the forceps signing of their previous contract at the end of 2018, discussions between the two groups had been heated. The group balked at the idea of paying to host channels otherwise accessible free of charge via DTT. Canal had already suspended broadcasting to its subscribers. This unprecedented showdown within the French audiovisual landscape had dramatically illustrated the rise in power of operators and other intermediaries in the modes of reception of television channels, to the detriment of DTT. This had prompted the public authorities to bang their fists on the table. This time the blow dealt by Canal could hit TF1, M6 and their merger project in the flank.
