The free offer of Molotov
getting poorer week by week. After reaching an agreement to continue broadcasting the channels of the M6 group, the streaming platform
Parisian reoffends.
Molotov announced on Monday February 7 the conclusion of an agreement with the TF1 group to broadcast its channels to paying subscribers. A decision that follows his conviction for counterfeiting.
TF1 group channels now paid
The weeks go by and look alike for Molotov. The Internet television platform, recently transferred to the American flag, found itself at the heart of two legal battles. A first with the M6 group, since settled, the second with TF1. A few weeks apart, the streaming service was severely sentenced by French justice to millions of euros in fines for having broadcast the channels of the two groups without authorization for several years. In their decision rendered on Friday January 7, the judges had given the French start-up 15 days to stop broadcasting the channels of the TF1 group (TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI).
A month later, the platform finally reached an agreement with the group. ” Molotov will now distribute the free-to-air channels of the TF1 group in its paid offers “, Said the streaming service, which relied above all on the freeness of its service to attract new users. At this stage, the agreement excludes the group’s pay channels (TV Breizh, Ushuaïa TV and Histoire TV) which are still under negotiation. The “replays and bonuses” of the TF1 channels will be made available soon.
An impoverished free offer
This situation is not unprecedented, since the start-up had reached a similar conclusion with the M6 group, whose channels are also reserved for Molotov’s pay offer. More concretely, only Molotov Plus subscribers (billed at 3.99 euros per month) will be able to continue to benefit from the channels of the two groups, i.e. around 250,000 users only on the “ more than 18 million users claimed by the company.
From now on, the free offer on which the French application was based is stripped of a large fleet of channels. ” Molotov regrets this situation and reaffirms his attachment to free DTT channels for all. It is also important to note that all the other DTT channels are accessible free of charge on Molotov, apart from those of the TF1 and M6 groups. “, underlined the application in a press release.
Source: Capital
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