One month before the World Cup, the TF1 channels are still inaccessible on Canal+’s TNT Sat satellite offer: the court confirmed this Thursday that the latter was not obliged to restore the broadcast, which had been cut off since the beginning of September due to a commercial dispute.
The commercial court had already ruled in the same direction as the Paris Court of Appeal, in a decision handed down on September 22.
Canal+ has stopped broadcasting TF1 channels on all its distribution channels (box, myCANAL app, TNT Sat), due to a lack of financial agreement to renew its contract.
In court, the TF1 group specifically demanded the resumption of the broadcast of its five free channels (TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI) on TNT Sat, for a period of four months.
He argued that this would leave time to find a global agreement or allow TNT Sat customers to switch to another satellite offer, Fransat (Eutelsat group).
Satellite is the only way for some homes to receive television in isolated areas not served by DTT (mainly in the mountains).
low audiences
At first instance and on appeal, the courts rejected TF1’s request. He pointed out in particular that the law did not oblige Canal to distribute the TF1 signal on TNT Sat, as the media regulator, Arcom, had recognized.
“The TF1 group takes note and deplores” this decision, reacted this Thursday in a press release. According to him, this situation “deprives millions of French people of quality information, great fiction and family entertainment and major sporting events, in particular the matches of the French soccer team.”
For its part, Canal+ was willing to restore “without delay” the broadcast of the TF1 channels on TNT Sat, provided that an agreement is reached on “fair, balanced and transparent bases”.
The cessation of the broadcast of its channels by Canal+ harmed the audiences of the TF1 group. In September, its five channels recorded an overall audience share of 25.7%, compared to 27.6% a year earlier and 26.8% in August, according to Médiamétrie.
Questioned by AFP, the director of Fransat, Jean-Luc Deroudilhe, stated that the satellite operator had “greatly felt” the effects of the cessation of TF1 broadcast by TNT Sat.
Without being able to quantify it, he assures that there is a strong demand for Fransat decoders from wholesalers, which could mean that TNT Sat customers are switching to Fransat.
alternate solution
For its part, TF1 has tried in recent days to get around the cessation of broadcasting its channels on TNT Sat, Satellifacts revealed on Tuesday.
According to this specialized medium, TF1 has implemented a technical solution that allows its channels to be broadcast through Astra, the same satellite that provides service to TNT Sat, but without going through this offer.
Asked by AFP, TF1 laconically indicated on Tuesday that it is “technical tests in case the situation persists.”
Some observers doubt, however, that this solution is sustainable, since it leads to unencrypted broadcasting of TF1 throughout Europe, an area served by Astra, which seems difficult to conceive during the World Cup.
TF1 and Canal+ deny responsibility in the conflict. Canal+ claims that TF1 was too greedy in the renegotiation of the contract, concluded at the end of 2018 after a similar dispute. TF1 claims that it is their rival who did not want to reach an agreement.
Lors de l’audience devant le tribunal de commerce, le 13 septembre, l’avocat de TF1 avait glissé que le montant du contract TF1 Premium (diffusion des chains en direct et services annexes comme le replay) estait de “13 million euros annually”.
In a separate proceeding, Canal brought TF1 before the Nanterre Commercial Court.
Source: BFM TV
