Orange / Free: the conflict gets bogged down with the chains of Altice France

A new stone in the garden of Altice France. While the torch burns between the parent company of SFR and Free about the remuneration of associated services (replay, catch-up television …) of its television channels BFMTV, RMC Story or RMC Découverte, another actor seems decided to put a spoke in the wheels of the group chaired by Alain Weill. This is Orange, with whom the broadcasting contract for these channels is also coming to an end soon. While the holding would claim, according to information published in the press, about 5 million euros to Free to offer the right to broadcast its channels and their television platform delinerarisée, what the ISP Xavier Niel does not seem decided to accept, these claims could be faced with the same end of not receiving the side of Orange.

"We have a position that is quite aligned with Free's, that is, we consider that there was a balance between the channel editors and the operators that we are in broadcasting these channels on our box free, "said the president and CEO of operator Stéphane Richard this morning at the microphone of France Televisions.

For the latter, the tacit balance previously in force proved to be win-win, television publishers offering ISPs their content flow and associated services in return for an assured audience. "We offer publishers a very important audience," said the president of the first French operator, leaving a threat to threaten the chains of Altice France, which have indeed much to lose in the case, they whose associated services in terms of catalog, they are much less available than those offered by the TF1 and M6 groups, which have managed to negotiate such agreements in the past.

For Alain Weill, the world of television has changed, operators adapt

"The world of television is moving because people
are getting more and more television by their boxes today and
with fiber deployment it's something that's going to happen
generalize. The advertising market is undergoing a transformation with
 the arrival of GAFA, which has a very strong position. The market of
television is also evolving with the arrival of SVOD platforms and therefore the
Traditional chains have to adapt. To adapt is to be done
also remunerate by telecom operators ", had yet explained in the middle of the week the president of Altice France, Alain Weill, at the microphone of BFMTV to justify his claims.

"This evolution of the world of television has arrived in
all countries and in all countries there were conflicts at the time of
these changes between channel publishers and distributors.
It is this crisis that we know today between BFM, RMC
Discovery, RMC Story and Free ", also noted the leader of the operator, who had, remember, first made a name in the audiovisual sector.

As a reminder, television groups have recently begun to claim
 large amounts (of the order of several million euros) to ISPs
to allow the latter to recover the signals of their chains
and offer their subscribers their different TV platforms from
 catching. Claims fueled by the American example, country
 where TV groups have made such agreements with ISPs and
which strongly influenced the career of Alain Weill,
previously president of the media branch of Altice (and founder of
television channels BFMTV, BFM Business, BFM Paris or RMC
Discovery and RMC Story) which now presides over the destinies of Altice
La France.

Orange remains firm on its positions

The fact remains that the American ecosystem is not that of France, where
margins and the rates charged by operators for their offers
triple-play are infinitely weaker. Which explains their
reluctance to adopt this model. "We have never asked for money, we, to provide this service to the channels and some publishers today want to break this balance and move into a somewhat hybrid status, between a free channel for the one who looks at it, but pay for the operators, we categorically reject this position, "said Stéphane Richard at the microphone of France Televisions.

The latter took the opportunity to pass a tackle supported services associated channels of Altice France, whose catalog is less provided than those offered by TF1 or M6 groups (whose channels are based it is true less on the flow and the famous "priority to live" so vaunted by BFMTV). "For us, the principle is clear, if there are new services that have value for the consumer, we are ready to look at things, if there is none it is not", a- he said so, confirming once again his opposition to the demands of the staff of Altice France and estimating "possible" to cut, in case of failure of the negotiations, access to the chains of the house- mother of SFR on his television offer.

The position of the Orange management is not new. Last winter, the public affairs manager of the incumbent operator,
Laurentino Lavezzi had already warned Altice France against
such appeals by stating that "to require remuneration for
distribute the signal of free channels
 of TNT, if we pull the wire, we would come to wonder why
Google would ask us and your affiliate SFR to pay for our customers to access Youtube. "An opinion shared by the CEO of Orange France, Fabienne
Dulac, who said on the sidelines of a press conference held in the spring that "the requirements of Altice France as they are transcribed in the
the press seem high and not related to the hearings of these
chains ", stating that" these last ones need us more than we do them ".

Much to lose for Altice France?

At this little game, Altice France – which is strong to have already entered into sounding and stumbling agreements with its operator SFR and Bouygues Telecom (subsidiary of the group Bouygues, also owner of the TF1 group) – could therefore have a lot to lose. For several years now, BFMTV has been the main player in the continuous news channel market, whose landscape has been greatly disrupted in recent years by the sinking of I-TV (now CNews) but also by the burst into the competition of a new actor, FranceInfo, as well as by the passage to free TNT of LCI.

But the Altice France news channel, whose audiences are now between 2 and 3% average audience share (far ahead of competitors, which capped at around 1%), could today see its domination weakened by the loss of audience following the stop of its diffusion on the offers of Free and, a fortiori, on those of Orange, the first French operator.

Interviewed earlier this week at the microphone of France Inter, the new director general of the chain of
information television Marc-Olivier Fogiel had estimated that stopping the broadcast of the channel on the television package Free has lost 15% of its audience share, while 60% of
BFM TV viewers are watching this channel via box and that Free's market share in this market is 25%. We can then easily imagine that the channel has a lot to lose in the event of a similar conflict with the incumbent operator, which has historically dominated the telecommunications operators market and claimed in particular 20.3 million customers in its fixed broadband services in the second quarter 2019. The serial continues.