TF1 loses its first legal step against Canal+, which stopped broadcasting its channels, and shows its disagreement with this decision.
We announce to you this afternoon thatAfter the judgment of the commercial court, Canal+ had no obligation to take over the free channels of the TF1 group.
The Martin Bouygues Group has just reacted and indicates that “It regrets the decision of the courtroom judge of the Commercial Court of Paris who did not see the urgency of preserving the interests of the viewers who use the TNTSAT service so that they are not, as the president of ‘ARCOM recently underlined, hostage to a commercial dispute that does not involve this service. In order not to leave households that only have TNTSAT to receive their DTT channels unresolved, the TF1 group has decided to take the case to the Paris Court of Appeal; This must be decided very soon.”
As a reminder, as of September 2, the Canal+ group stops broadcasting the channels and services of the TF1 group to its 5.4 million Canal+ and MyCanal subscribers and to the 2 million homes equipped with TNTSAT that receive satellite television in the white areas. The reason given by the Canal+ Group is that TF1 has greatly increased the emission fee for its free channels.
TF1 indicates that the channels in its group “are distributed by all distributors FREE, SFR, Bouygues Telecom, Orange, Molotov and Salto, and that the TF1 group has renewed all these agreements on the basis of general conditions also offered to Canal+, Canal+ has not wanted to enter into a new contract for distribution with the TF1 group. The Canal+ group thus chooses to deprive its subscribers of the channels and services that are included in their subscription.
and specify that “This distribution agreement in no way refers to the distribution of the channels through TNTSAT; in fact, this service is offered by the Canal+ group to consumers as an independent offer, independent of subscriptions to other payment offers of the group; the Group regrets that the Commercial Court has not taken this into account”.
According to TF1 “Canal+ is fully authorized to continue broadcasting the channels on TNTSAT, this service not giving rise to any remuneration for the benefit of TF1. Consequently, the TF1 group had demanded precautionary measures from the Canal+ group before the Paris Commercial Court so that the Canal+ group restores the TNTSAT service as soon as possible, which affects about 2 million homes, particularly those located in white areas. who do not have other ways of accessing television”.