TF1 PLANS TO MAKE A COMPLAINT AGAINST CANAL+
PARIS (Reuters) – The TF1 group, a subsidiary of Bouygues, plans to file a complaint against the Canal+ group, a subsidiary of Vivendi, in the context of the commercial dispute between the two partners over the renewal of the distribution contract which binds them.
TF1 is “seriously considering” bringing the case to court, a spokeswoman for the group told Reuters, confirming information from franceinfo.
“We are not going to be taken in by the audience and leave our viewers without the possibility of watching our antennas without reacting”, declared on franceinfo Didier Casas, general secretary of the TF1 group.
Canal+ announced on Friday that it would give up broadcasting the free DTT channels of the TF1 group in mainland France (TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI) due to commercial requirements deemed too high by the Bouygues subsidiary.
Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak has asked Canal+ to restore the broadcasting of free channels from the TF1 group, Le Parisien and AFP reported on Saturday.
The chairman of the executive board of Canal+, Maxime Saada, for his part judged in an interview with the Sunday newspaper (JDD) that the public authorities “cannot interfere” in the private commercial relations between the two television groups, while by judging that “the public authorities could on the other hand call TF1 to respect the obligation of free provision of its signal, which we call our wishes”.
The two groups had already clashed over this issue in the spring of 2018 and Canal+ had only taken over the broadcasting of TF1’s DTT channels after the intervention of the CSA (High Audiovisual Council, which has since become Arcom, Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication-Editor’s note) and the Minister of Culture at the time, Brigitte Nyssen.
(Tassilo Hummel and Dominique Vidalon report, French version Myriam Rivet, edited by Tangi Salaün)