Presenter Cyril Hanouna accused the audiovisual regulator, Arcom, of “harassment” during his television return on Monday, six months before the planned withdrawal of the C8 channel.
During the season premiere of “Touche pas à mon poste”, this undisputed TV star, 49, launched into diatribes against the regulator, which decided that C8 should leave TNT next year.
“TPMP will continue until February, the end of February. (…) the C8 channel will make numerous appeals so that the decision is not taken,” explained the presenter, recalling that it had not been notified to the Canal+ group.
“We will have other choices than TNT, just after February. Without Arcom, no more problems, my audience, do you think we love each other?”, he had previously sung in a parody sequence. However, he did not specify what these choices were.
C8 belongs to a group which will retain six other TNT frequencies: Canal+, CNews, CStar and three thematic channels (Canal+ Sport, Canal+ Cinémas and Planète+).
In July, Arcom decided not to renew the frequency of C8 after February 28, which has accumulated 7.6 million euros in fines over eight years for the excesses of its headliner.
“Arcom can persecute us, I don’t care if the public loves me,” intoned Cyril Hanouna, made up as Celine Dion, on air to the tune of “L’Hymne à l’amour”, a standard by Edith Piaf performed at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. He then joined the set live on a motorbike, under the eyes of sports journalist Nelson Monfort, to light a cauldron.
– “I will be able to bounce back” –
The presenter arrived from the studios of Europe 1, where he continues to present “On marche sur la tête” (4 p.m.-6 p.m.) every day, tested during the legislative campaign.
To end “TPMP”, Cyril Hanouna launched into a long pro domo plea, in a more serious tone. “It’s a racial profiling offense, for me, and a huge attack on freedom of expression,” he attacked. “They deleted an entire channel because there was a presenter they didn’t like.”
“For several years I have been the subject of repeated harassment” and “I have decided to take legal action,” he announced solemnly. “I consider myself, and know that we already have a 35-page file, harassed by the Arcom organization, which behind generates hate messages on social networks.”
“It is extremely serious. They cannot prevent someone from working and today, Arcom is preventing me from working,” he said.
“By expanding, that’s more than 400 people who risk finding themselves unemployed,” said the host, who recalled that C8 employed 300 people and his production company H2O around a hundred. “I’ll be able to bounce back, my freedom of speech will be elsewhere, on the networks.”
“What I did, there you go, I was going to say some stupid things live, yes, but all the good that this show did compared to 0.01%… I’m going to say: what happened? We played a prank, yes, we regret it (…) We had a fight with a member of parliament,” he conceded, to recall the facts that resulted in the largest fines.
C8 and NRJ12, another channel that did not obtain a renewal of its frequency, must give way to OFTV (Ouest France group) and RéelsTV (CMI Media, owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky).
reb-hh/pel/ybl
Related News :