PARIS (Reuters) – The Canal+ group is calling on the government to intervene with TF1 to allow it to broadcast several of its channels on DTT for free, at the heart of a dispute between the two groups, the president of Canal+ told Le Journal of Sunday.
“Our relations with the TF1 group are part of private commercial relations, in which the public authorities cannot interfere”, declared Maxime Saada. “The public authorities could on the other hand call TF1 to respect the obligation of free provision of its signal, what we call of our wishes.”
Canal+ (Vivendi group) announced on Friday that it was renouncing the broadcasting of TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Series Films and LCI because of a major revision of the commercial requirements of the TF1 group as of August 31, and in particular of the “payment of a very consequent”.
“The free DTT channels – such as those of the TF1 group – are free for the general public and must remain so”, repeated Maxime Saada in the JDD.
The Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul-Malak, for her part, asked Canal+ to resume broadcasting channels from the TF1 group on DTT, Le Parisien reported on Saturday.
In a letter addressed to Maxime Saada on Friday, of which Le Parisien received a copy, the minister calls on the management “its sense of responsibility and of the general interest to avoid depriving hundreds of thousands of households of receiving all the DTT channels.”
TF1, for its part, expressed its regrets on Friday after Canal+’s decision and said it was open to discussions to find a quick resolution and avoid penalizing several million viewers.
(Gilles Guillaume, said by Camille Raynaud)