Canal+ urges government to convince TF1 to allow free broadcast

Maxime Saada poses on the purple carpet earlier than the beginning of the forty sixth Cesar Awards ceremony on the Olympia live performance corridor in Paris, France, March 12, 2021. Thomas Samson/Pool through REUTERS

PARIS, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Vivendi’s (VIV.PA) pay TV firm Canal+ referred to as on the federal government to persuade TF1 to permit it to broadcast its channel freed from cost, two days after halting the airing of TF1 channels as a result of the worth the group requested was too excessive.

In an interview with weekly Journal du Dimanche, Canal+ Chairman Maxime Saada mentioned TF1 had requested a 50% rise in its contract with Canal+ that ended on Aug. 31, which was unacceptable.

“DTT (Digital Terrestrial Tv) channels – comparable to these of the TF1 group – are free for most people and should stay so,” he mentioned.

French each day Le Parisien mentioned on Saturday it had seen a letter by Tradition Minister Rima Abdul-Malak, through which she referred to as on Canal+ administration “to indicate its sense of duty and normal curiosity to keep away from depriving a whole bunch of hundreds of households of receiving all DTT channels.

Saada mentioned that though the negotiations with TF1, a subsidiary of the Bouygues (BOUY.PA) group, have been non-public issues between the businesses the federal government had means to intervene.

“Public authorities may name on TF1 to respect the duty to make its sign obtainable freed from cost, which we’re calling for,” he added.

The 2 teams had already clashed on this subject within the spring of 2018. Canal+ had quickly interrupted the printed TF1 Group’s free channels for its subscribers after refusing to pay to broadcast channels in any other case accessible freed from cost through DTT.

The sign was then restored solely after the intervention of CSA, the regulatory authority for audiovisual, and the minister of tradition on the time.

(This story refiles to appropriate to CSA not CASA in ultimate paragraph)

Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; enhancing by Jonathan Oatis

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