Orange prepares to cut the signal of BFMTV, RMC Discovery and RMC Story

The vice is tightening around the Altice group. Since last August 27th, Free no longer distributes to its box subscribers the channels of the competing group, namely BFMTV, RMC Découverte and RMC Story. This cut is the result of the lack of financial agreement between the groups Altice and Free. As a reminder, inspired by the approach of TF1 and M6 last year, Altice claims the providers of Internet access (FAI) compensation for the distribution of its channels and associated services. Unacceptable for Free who only agrees to pay for the associated services – by definition more limited for an info channel, whose consumption model is not easy to replay – but not for the distribution of free channels.

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In the absence of an agreement and to avoid paying a penalty of 100,000 euros per day, Free ceased broadcasting the Altice group channels on its boxes on 27 August. Since then, the group's channels have been impacted by a small but measurable decline in their audience. Thus, BFMTV fell to 1.9% audience share for several days – before rising to 2.0% PDA Friday and Saturday – while its monthly average in July was 2.2%. On Wednesday, Marc-Olivier Fogiel, the new boss of BFMTV, estimated the loss of audience of his channel to "15%", emphasizing that "60% of viewers watch BFMTV by box and Free represents one quarter".

Orange increases pressure on Altice

But the situation could worsen considerably for BFMTV and its sisters, now under the direct threat of a cut by Orange, with which no agreement has been signed for the moment. Since this morning, the operator broadcasts a warning message on its LiveBox. "The Altice group intends to profoundly modify the conditions of distribution by Orange of its free DTT channels and their replay. In the absence of an agreement, Orange may have to stop distributing BFMTV, RMC Découverte and RMC Story channels on its networks."is it written.

According to our colleagues in "Echos", the current distribution agreement between Orange and Altice will expire "during SeptemberIf Orange puts pressure on its competitor, the two groups still have a little time to negotiate, but it's difficult for Altice to appear in a strong position, with Orange accounting for nearly 12 million fixed broadband subscribers. In the event of a break, BFMTV's audience could collapse by half and advertising revenues could be considerably reduced, a sacrifice that Altice can hardly afford to make while BFMTV is the jewel of the group's television activities, the only news channel in the world. France to be profitable.

The audience of BFMTV sacrificed?

Altice therefore has an interest in playing the soft method with Orange. As a reminder, the position of the leading operator in France is aligned with that of Free. "NOTWe consider that there is a balance between the channel editors and the operators we are: by carrying the channels for free, we assure them an audience, without asking for remuneration in return ", had explained Stéphane Richard, the boss of Orange, Thursday morning on France 2. "The question is not the amount of the check, we will pay if there is an additional service provided to the consumer, not in the opposite case"he had said … while pointing out the absence of his additional services.