Arcom is expected to turn the corner when it must announce the numbers on which TNT viewers will have to rely to access the 11 channels renewed next February. Gulli believes that his place is not high enough in the zaplist.
After having selected 11 candidates for broadcast on TNT from the end of February 2025, Arcom must still decide which numbers will be allocated to them. The choice should be made during the month of January and the channels continue to plead for change. If the creation of an information block has been debated for some time, Philippe Bony, president of Gulli believes that it “we must not forget youth“.
“Gulli’s natural place is in the top 10 of the numbering“, he affirms, without omitting its competitor France 4, explaining that these two channels “are the only channels dedicated to a family audience and must be the subject of particular attention“. However, the issue of locations on DTT is strategic: it allows greater notoriety, better identification and memorization and this has an impact on the channel’s revenues.
However, Gulli dodges the question concerning the number she would like to occupy: channel 4 or 8 which will be freed following the withdrawal of Canal+ and the exclusion of C8? “It is up to Arcom to decide the question” says its president. For the moment, the known scenarios are as follows: the possible creation of an information block and a block dedicated to youth. Thus Gulli would be rehoused on channel 13 and France 4 would be on channel 14. But the M6 group channel fears being placed just before news channels with often anxiety-provoking subjects. “We ended the year on a loop with the tragedies of Mayotte and the plane crash in Seoul and we woke up on the morning of January 1 with the attack in New Orleans, he observes. Of course we need to inform people. But it is necessary to protect children” explains Philippe Bony.
-Among the arguments put forward to plead its case, Gulli explains that it is aimed at young people while the TNT audience is aging and facing globalized competition (Netflix, YouTube, social networks, etc.), which would justify further protection of the channel. . “We cannot bring ourselves to abandon French youth to poorly or even unregulated platforms, and expose them to sometimes inappropriate content. It is a fight that we have been waging every day for twenty years. But we also need the support of public authorities. Benefiting from more favorable numbering will allow us to strengthen our proximity with French families” she explains. Especially since the channel is also the leading private investor in French animation and broadcasts 2000 hours per year of cartoons from France.
Source: Le Figaro
This article was reprinted on the Univers FreeBox website
