France’s Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique (the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority) Arcom hasgiven its approval to the plans for the takeover by the company Groupe News Participations, a subsidiary of the Altice group, of the companies TFX and M6 Génération. These decisions follow the one issued by the Competition […]

French satellite operator Eutelsat has ceased the European broadcast of Russian satellite channel NTV Mir following a request from media regulator Arcom. The channel had compared Ukrainians to Nazis. The regulator noted that NTV Mir “tends to present repeatedly not only the Ukrainian leadership and the Ukrainian army, but also and above all the Ukrainian […]

At the presentation of the 2022 Q1 results, M6’s shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the proposed merger with fellow French commercial media group TF1, to form a Bouygues-TF1 entity. The M6-TF1 association, which will create to a French media giant in terms of channel distribution, advertising and audiovisual rights, is set to close in early 2023, […]

French commercial broadcaster M6 Group has confirmed that it has received a put option for the 6ter channel from Altice Media, and that it has granted it exclusive negotiation rights. The sale of 6ter would be part of the proposed merger of the M6 and TF1 Groups, announced on May 17th, 2021. Following this merger, […]

French authors association SACD, along with producers’ bodies USPA and AnimFrance, have asked France’s Conseil d’État (Council of State) to scrap the conventions signed by US SVoD platforms Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ with regulatory body Arcom (formerly the CSA) in December 2021. The SACD and its allies also wrote to Arcom requesting the withdrawal […]

beIN Sports France has landed a major blow in the fight against illegal theft of content, obtaining the first court decision requesting the blocking of fraudulent websites, previously identified by the channel. As part of this decision and in compliance with the new Article L. 333-10 of the Sports Code, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) blocked […]

A report in French newspaper Le Figaro quotes the nation’s Association of Advertisers (UDM) saying that they do not see TV advertising and digital advertising as substitutable. This is perceived as a negative for the proposed merger between French commercial TV broadcaster TF1 and smaller rival M6. A note from investment bank Exane/BNPP says that […]

Born out of a merger between TV regulatory body the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA) and online anti-piracy authority Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des œuvres et la protection des droits sur internet (Hadopi), the new French media regulator Arcom came into being on January 1st. The new watchdog is overseen by Roch-Olivier Maistre, former […]