TF1 reportedly puts putative pay TV plan on ice

French news service BFM TV has reported that commercial broadcaster TF1 has put a plan to launch a low-cost satellite TV platform, which it has considered in secret over recent months, on ice for now.

According to BFM TV, TF1 has been considering a plan to launch a mini-bouquet on Eutelsat’s satellite platform in recent months, but decided not to go ahead during the summer.

The news service reports that the TF1 platform would have aggregated a number of existing pay TV channels from TF1 Group, Al Jazeera, M6 and AB Group and would not have involved the creation of new services. Marketing and after-sales support would have been left to distributors rather than the service itself, and encryption and technical services would likely have been shared with AB’s existing Bis TV service, according to BFM TV.