Canal+ wins appeal court judgement in TF1-TNTSat dispute

The Paris appeals court has confirmed an earlier ruling in favour of Canal+ in its dispute over the carriage of TF1’s channels on the TNTSat platform.

The pay TV operator said the court had confirmed all of the points made in the earlier ruling by the Tribunal de Commerce de Paris.

Under that ruling, Canal+ was not forced to re-establish the distribution of TF1’s free-to-view channels on the TNTSat platform, which it had withdrawn following a dispute over carriage fees.

The ruling means that TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI will remain off air in relation to the free-to-view satellite platform.

Canal+ pulled TF1’s channels from its own pay TV platform, the MyCanal streaming service and TNTSat, which is operated by Canal+, on September 2 after negotiations between the pair broke down.

However TF1 mounted a legal challenge to the extension of Canal+’s withdrawal of its channels to the free satellite platform, which is designed to complement digital-terrestrial distribution.

Canal+ had said that TF1 had demanded a 50% higher fee for the carriage of its free-to-view channels on the Canal+ pay TV platform than in the previous contract.

TF1 said it regretted the decision and argued that viewers of the TNTSat platform were in effect hostage to a dispute that should not concern them.

TNTSat reaches around two million households across France.

TF1 maintains that its contract with Canal+ does not concern TNTSat, which it says is offered by Canal+ as a separate service from its pay TV offering.

Canal+ is authorised to distribute channels on the platform without, according to TF1, paying it anything in return.

Canal+ said it remained open to negotiations with the broadcaster.