LThe game of musical chairs is underway. Arcom definitively confirmed, this Thursday, December 12, the exclusion of C8 and NRJ12 from DTT and the reallocation of their frequencies. One will go to OFTV, a channel run by the Ouest-France group; the other, to the Réels TV project, defended by the CMI France group.
This decision was no longer a surprise for several months and the press release from the French audiovisual regulator only serves as a formalization.
OFTV, for adults aged 25 to 49 living outside city centers
“Life, in real life”, is the slogan of OFTV, which will see the light of day on 1is March or 1is September 2025 (the distribution between the two channels must still be decided). According to Maud Lévrier, head of the Transformation, digital and distribution division cited by The Pilgrimthe channel wants to address itself “primarily to young adults, aged 25 to 49, who live outside city centers, and to offer them an alternative offer to that of existing channels, published from Paris and which give them insufficient speech and poorly translate their reality.
ALSO READ TNT numbering: the behind-the-scenes battle to recover the numbers of C8 and NRJ12During its hearing before Arcom last July, the Sipa Ouest-France group (which distributes the regional press) explained that it wanted to offer a wide range of programs, from live to magazines, from talk shows to news. regional news, from entertainment to cinema and sport. OFTV will require the creation of 58 positions and extensive work for its television set.
“Our project is intended for the public, not for the remuneration of shareholders holding capital,” defended Édouard Reis Carona, director of the Audiovisual division of Ouest-France, recalling that the channel is owned, like the newspaper, by the Association for the support of the principles of humanist democracy (ASPDH), non-profit association under the law of 1901.
Réels TV, channel between documentaries and debates
The other newcomer is also not blue in the media world. Réels TV is in fact the property of the CMI (Czech Media Invest) France group, whose owner is the billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. He has already got his hands on the written press – Marianne or Elle – and is therefore now investing in audiovisual.
In front of Arcom, Denis Olivennes, director of Editis, a publishing group linked to the project, defended the heart of what Réels TV will be. The channel's programming will be based on documentaries, divided into five themes: society, history and politics, science, culture, discovery. “We will give pride of place to films of original French expression, but also to a European documentary offering,” explained Caroline Cochaux, one of the heads of the project. This part will make up half of the chain.
-The rest will be split between entertainment and debate. A daily preview and evening show will be the venue for an interview with a political, intellectual or business personality. The second part of the program (between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.) will be a sequence of debates. Finally, Réels TV will offer a cultural and literary program every week, as well as a film club and a program dedicated to live entertainment. Films as well as magazines focused on “beauty, health, gastronomy, fashion” will also be offered.
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Answer
Like OFTV, the CMI France channel intends to target a young audience, between 24 and 59 years old. She will also be present on the networks, taking inspiration from Loopsider, of which Daniel Kretinsky is a shareholder. If the two owners of these channels could only welcome the choice of Arcom, there are two who therefore look gloomy.
The two big losers in history are NRJ12 and C8, definitively ruled out and which will no longer be able to broadcast in 2025, despite the protests of the Canal+ group and the appeal of C8. “Unsuccessful candidates will be notified of reasoned rejections in the coming days”, further specifies Arcom, which explains having favored “the public interest and the pluralism of socio-cultural currents of expression” and the “diversity” brought to the audiovisual landscape.
