The Minister of Culture asks Canal+ to restore TF1 to its TNT Sat offer

This ministerial request is made after Canal+’s decision to stop broadcasting the free channels of the TF1 group (TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI) when renewing the distribution contract between the two parties, due in particular to payment requirement “very substantial pay”the group owned by Vivendi announced on Friday.

“I appeal to your sense of responsibility and the general interest to avoid depriving hundreds of thousands of households of the reception of all DTT channels”, urge Rima Abdul Malak in this mail that franceinfo was able to consult, confirming information from Parisian. “Without interfering in the commercial dispute between the two groups and a negotiation that falls under freedom of contract”the Minister explains that she is “careful that the negotiations between publishers and distributors do not lead to blockages likely to compromise the access of all audiences to the free offer of digital terrestrial television” (DTT).

Gold, “Cutting the signal of the TF1 group channels on the TNT Sat offer deprives people who can only receive DTT via satellite of any access to the five free channels of the TF1 group”, emphasizes Rima Abdul Malak. And “this situation is not in accordance with the intention of the legislator, which was to guarantee full coverage of the territory by DTT by obliging DTT channels to make their signal available free of charge to a satellite distributor who requests it “she recalls.

For his part, in an interview with Sunday newspaperMaxime Saada reaffirms that “the free TNT channels – such as those of the TF1 group – are free for the entire public and must remain so”. “Canal+ broadcasts more than 150 channels in France, including all the other DTT channels without exception. We do not encounter these difficulties with other DTT players, including the M6 ​​group”he said. “The TF1 group has a feeling of omnipotence due to its dominant position, even before a possible merger” with M6, he adds.