Orange stopped broadcasting ten local BFMTV channels on August 18, 2022 (AFP / ERIC PIERMONT)
Orange stopped broadcasting ten local BFMTV channels (Altice group) on August 18, for lack of agreement on the remuneration to be paid to Altice for this broadcast, according to concordant sources on Thursday, confirming information from the weekly Strategies.
Orange subscribers no longer have access via their box to these local channels, which they can however find on DTT or via the internet.
“We have not reached an agreement on the distribution conditions of these local channels, but Orange remains open to discussion,” the operator told AFP.
Orange, on the other hand, still broadcasts the national Altice channels on its boxes.
The disagreement between Orange and Altice media, the parent company of BFM, is a new episode in a recurring conflict between internet service providers and television channels.
In 2018, TF1 was the first channel to request compensation from box providers for the broadcast of its content.
TF1 had suspended its replay service on Orange boxes for a few weeks, before an agreement was finally reached.
In general, telecom operators refuse to pay for content broadcast on DTT, but may agree to pay for additional services such as catch-up (“replay”) or the provision of additional content.
The question comes up every time contracts have to be renegotiated. Altice believes that it has considerably beefed up its program and service offering since the previous rounds of discussions.
Questioned by AFP, Bouygues Telecom indicated for its part that its “overall agreement in progress with Altice covered in particular the distribution of the local channels of the group”, without further details.
The ten local BFM channels not distributed by Orange are BFM Marseille, BFM Nice Côte d’Azur, BFM Toulon Var, BFM Lyon, BFM Paris Ile de France, BFM Grand Lille, BFM Grand Littoral, BFM D’Ici Alpes du Sud, BFM from Here Haute Provence, LCN (The Norman Chain)
