The NRJ group appeals to the Council of State following the non-renewal of its NRJ 12 channel on DTT

In July, the audiovisual regulator revealed the list of candidates selected for the renewal of 15 TNT frequencies, excluding NRJ 12, but also C8.

The distribution of frequencies on DTT is causing a stir. On Wednesday, September 18, the NRJ group announced that it had brought the matter before the Council of State to contest Arcom’s decision not to renew the DTT frequency of its NRJ 12 channel, which will expire on February 28. In July, the audiovisual regulator revealed the list of candidates selected for the renewal of 15 DTT frequencies in 2025. And it rejected C8 and NRJ 12 in favor of two newcomers, OFTV, from the Ouest-France group, and RéelsTV, from the CMI Média group, owned by Daniel Kretinsky.

“NRJ Group and NRJ 12 have just brought an interim and substantive action before the Council of State to obtain, respectively, the suspension and then the cancellation of the Arcom pre-selection measure”, the group specifies in a press release. The DTT frequencies will only be formally allocated once Arcom has signed new agreements with the selected channels. But “This measure, which is totally incomprehensible, is in reality a decision which already causes harm to NRJ 12, which justifies the referral to the administrative judge without waiting for Arcom to publish its final decisions”estimates NRJ.

“The NRJ group remains fully mobilized to actively defend its rights and will use all avenues of appeal to this end,” he assures. In July, the audiovisual regulator, responsible for deciding between around twenty applications, explained that it had based its decision in particular on “the interest of each project for the public with regard to the priority imperative of pluralism”.

In addition to NRJ 12, which has low audiences and mainly programs reruns, C8, which has accumulated 7.6 million euros in fines due to the excesses of its star presenter Cyril Hanouna, was not selected for the renewal of its TNT frequency after the end of February. “C8 channel will make numerous appeals so that the decision is not taken”explained Cyril Hanouna at the beginning of September, recalling that it had not been notified to its parent company, the Canal+ group, and accusing Arcom of “harassment”The left-wing web TV Le Média, an unsuccessful candidate for a frequency, had also announced in July its intention to hire a “appeal” with the Council of State.