Justice has confirmed twice that Canal+ is not obliged to resume the TF1 signal, if the conditions for recovery seem excessive to it.
The black screen on the channels of the TF1 group will continue on the side of Canal+. Justice has just confirmed Thursday, October 20 the right for the encrypted channel to accept or not the conditions of diffusion of its competitor. TF1 sought to further monetize access to its content via Canal+, but the latter did not accept the new terms, creating a deadlock situation.
This is the second court decision favorable to Canal+. September 22, the commercial court of Paris noted that Canal+ is not obliged to restore the broadcasting of TF1, including satellite. The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed this reading, rejecting the TF1 group’s appeal against the judgment rendered at first instance. The channels therefore remain unavailable.
Several channels are today affected by this fundamental disagreement between TF1 and Canal+. In addition to the first channel, the entire television galaxy is hit with a black screen: TMC, TFX, LCI and TF1 Series Films. The conflict has been going on since the beginning of September, with the shutdown of the signal on all distribution channels of the encrypted channel, such as MyCanal.
No legal lever to unblock the conflict
The decisions of the Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal will not surprise legal specialists: in fact, the law does not oblige Canal+ to distribute the TF1 signal – which also has the effect of protecting the distributors of certain requirements which may prove to be excessive. The new media regulator, Arcom, had also admitted the absence of a legal obligation.
” The law does not offer the regulator legal leverage to compel operators to remedy this harmful situation “, we read in a letter dated September 22. All that Arcom has been able to offer is an offer of mediation to settle the current dispute as quickly as possible, which is harmful to part of the population.
According to Le Parisien, TF1 is already suffering a little from the situation, in terms of audience. Based on data from Médiamétrie, a decline to 25.7% was noted on all of the group’s five channels in September 2022, compared to 26.8% in August and 27.8% in September 2021. , especially since an important meeting is coming soon: the football world cup.
