By choosing Nicolas de Tavernost’s project, Arcom preferred to engage in discussions with the channel for the renewal of its terrestrial frequency.
Xavier Niel must be chomping at the bit. The founder of Iliad (Free) will not reshuffle the French audiovisual cards with his general channel called SIX. Its project to occupy channel 6 of digital terrestrial television (TNT) has been excluded from the procedure for allocating this frequency, launched on December 7, 2022, Arcom, the media regulatory authority, announced on Wednesday. On the side of TF1, which also keeps its TNT license, there was even less suspense: the channel was the only candidate for its frequency.
Gathered as a plenary college, Arcom “has selected, as a preparatory measure, the TF1 (French Television 1 company) and M6 (Métropole Télévision company) projects. This selection comes after a comparative examination of the application files and the public hearing, on February 15, 2023, of the three candidates., she clarified. The authority will now initiate discussions with the selected candidates in order to conclude an agreement intended to define the obligations and commitments of each of the two services. This agreement should be adopted “before the issuance of an authorization to use the radio resource on DTT, which itself must take place before May 5, 2023”.
In the fight he had engaged against M6 with his company NJJ Project 5523, Xavier Niel promised a generalist channel with less advertising, more new programs, more creation and first evening shows starting before 9 p.m. “SIX offers a unique opportunity to breathe new life into DTT and to change television and its business model. Television has a future, provided we invest and innovate”, he had hammered. As soon as Arcom’s announcement was made, Xavier Niel reacted with an offbeat message on Twitter where he wrote: “The M6 frequency, how the fuck do you get back. I will NEVER be able to get it back”above a photo of a crying teenager.