The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Why Free cut the chains of the Altice group, including BFM TV

2019-08-28T15:58:53.795Z


BFMTV and two other channels of the Altice group are no longer available directly on the Freebox. In question, a standoff for five months on the conditions of remuneration framing the broadcast of these channels.


BFMTV and two other channels of the Altice group are no longer available directly on the Freebox. In question, a standoff for five months on the conditions of remuneration framing the broadcast of these channels.

"This morning, I wanted to watch BFM but there was a strange message on my screen . " Like the 6.5 million subscribers to Free's TV service, this 77-year-old from Nantes discovered on Tuesday that she could no longer watch BFMTV on channel 15 of her Freebox. Not RMC Discovery and RMC Story channels. Against a backdrop of tensions with the Altice group, Free has stopped since Tuesday, midnight, "the complete and simultaneous recovery" of these three channels on "its networks" .

In reality, they are still available "via TNT" explains, in a forum published in Les Echos , Xavier Niel, vice president of administration of Iliad, parent company of Free. But for that, you have to connect your Freebox to the antenna wall socket.

A long-standing war

It all started on March 20, when the broadcasting agreement between Altice and Free for the channels BFMTV, RMC Découverte and RMC Story expired. Like its rivals TF1 and M6, Patrick Drahi's group wanted to negotiate remuneration for the broadcasting of its channels by the Internet Service Provider (ISP). But for Free, paying for the broadcast of an available channel via DTT is unthinkable. Only services associated with channels (such as replay streaming) would justify a payment. Provided, according to the group, that they are "quality" . The delayed broadcast of BFMTV, news channel continuously, does not convince Free.

An agreement difficult to find

On July 28, the two groups would have been close to reaching an agreement, according to Xavier Niel. But the next day, the two parties differed on the legal structure of the contract. The CSA and the justice were then asked to decide. For the audiovisual policeman, Altice is entitled to demand remuneration for the broadcasting of its channels but Free is not obliged to retransmit. The high court in Paris, he asked Free to cut the three channels, from August 27, under penalty of paying a fine of 100,000 euros per day, and by channel.

"I hope we will reach an agreement with Free," reacted yesterday, Alain Weill, CEO of Altice France on Franceinfo . For his part, Xavier Niel asked Altice to submit a contract proposing the broadcast of BFMTV as a "pay option" on the Freebox. The story may be repeated in the coming weeks with Orange, whose distribution contract will also come to an end. In the meantime, the 77-year-old television viewer from Nantes "preferred to change channels" ...

Share this article

Why Free has cut the chains of the Altice group, including BFM TVOuest-France.fr

ENLARGE

Source: ouestfr

All news articles on 2019-08-28

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.