The management of BFM-TV intends to close the BFM Paris channel during the next half-year and “reclassify” its 27 journalists currently on permanent contracts, she declared to Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday December 10, confirming information from the site The Letter.
The announcement was made during an economic and social committee (CSE) on the main orientations of the group's chains belonging since this summer to the shipowner CMA CGM. Taking part, among others, Jean-Philippe Baille, deputy general manager for information of BFM-TV and RMC, Nicolas de Tavernost, vice-president of the media branch of CMA CGM, according to this source.
The local news channel, launched in 2016, has “27 permanent journalists and 5 people working in advertising management. [L’]objective is to promote internal mobility » to the other channels in the group, “take advantage of the transfer clause” in progress “to reclassify as many journalists as possible”added this source.
No closure of other regional channels
“It’s a channel that loses money”Who “has not found its financial balance”. “We are obliged to draw the consequences”added management. The Letter puts forward a deficit of 1.9 million euros for 2025, a figure that management has not confirmed to AFP.
In July, BFM and its sister radio, RMC, came under the control of the shipowner CMA CGM, the billionaire Rodolphe Saadé bought their parent company, Altice Media. According to management, the closure of BFM Paris is not a request from the shareholder.
The planned timetable is a closure “during the next semester”After “consultation, in accordance with the rules, of unions” in extraordinary CSE, “if possible by the end of 2024 or beginning of 2025”. Asked about the future of BFM's other regional channels, management assured: “for the moment, we are not going any further”. “Our ambition remains the same, to be a guarantee of proximity. » A transfer clause was opened following the change of shareholder in July: it allows journalists who wish to leave the channel with compensation. The group includes the news channel BFM-TV, radio RMC and the TNT channels RMC Découverte and RMC Story.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Rodolphe Saadé is officially the owner of BFM-TV
Read later
