TF1 will file a complaint against Canal+, in the context of the commercial dispute between the two partners, reveals franceinfo on Monday. On Friday, Canal+ announced that it had taken the decision to stop broadcasting the free channels of the TF1 group (TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI) to its subscribers, due in particular to the requirement of a payment “a very substantial remuneration”. Both groups are in the process of contract renewal. On Friday, Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak asked Canal+ to restore the broadcasting of free channels from the TF1 group.
“We are not going to let ourselves be taken from the audience without reacting”
“We are not going to let ourselves be taken in by the audience and leave our spectators without the possibility of looking at our antennas without reacting”said on Monday on franceinfo Didier Casas, general secretary of the TF1 group. “When Orange, Free, SFR, Bouygues Telecom take over the TF1 signal to sell it to their customers, they pay us (…) It’s the same for Canal+”, he explained.
Two million French people deprived of TF1 group channels
Two million French people can no longer watch TF1 today due to the encrypted channel decision. As a result, the Bouygues subsidiary recently recorded audience losses. “Canal + claims to be the victim of a situation. The truth is the opposite”said the general secretary of the TF1 group.
A previous conflict in 2018
Both groups had already clashed on this question in the spring of 2018, and Canal+ had then taken over the broadcasting of the DTT channels of TF1 only after the intervention of the CSA, (which has since become Arcom, the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication-Editor’s note) and the Minister of Culture of the time, Françoise Nyssen.