France: Arcom launches DTT bid call
February 27, 2024
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
French broadcast regulator Arcom is set to launch a new FTA and pay DTT call for bids on February 28th in order to renew, or not, the frequencies of the fifteen active broadcasters, including half of the national broadcasters.
The current authorisations of TF1, M6, Gulli, C8, W9, TMC, TFX, NRJ 12, LCI, BFMTV, CNews, CStar, Gulli, and pay services Canal+, Canal+ Sport, Canal+ Cinéma, Paris Première and Planète + will stop in 2025.
The selection process will last until autumn 2024 and incumbents, together with newcomers will have until May 2024 to submit their proposal and until July 2024 to justify to Arcom board members.
The launch date of the whole process has been set just prior to the public hearing in the French National Assembly of Canal+ Group senior executives by a parliamentary inquiry commission.
Regular breaches have been noted on the group’s FTA DTT services C8 and CNews, in terms of political pluralism and for failure to respect obligations.
French billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who controls parent company Vivendi and owns Canal+, as well as controversial C8 presenter Cyril Hanouna, whose polemical TV shows have been sanctioned several times, forcing Canal+ to pay a €3.5 million fine early in 2023, will be heard in mid-March 2024.
In recent weeks, some five months before the European Parliament elections, the French State Council went as far as urging Arcom to exercise greater control of news channel CNews, which deliberately tends to mainly open its editions to far right representatives, and more widely to all TV and radio stations.
The frequency renewal process of Bolloré’s channels are set to be closely observed in the months to come.