It was July 24th. To everyone’s surprise, Arcom decided to withdraw its TNT frequency from the C8 channel, thus signing its death warrant. A real earthquake in the French audiovisual landscape that delighted the political and media left, the public service and Release in the lead. The private channel had however warned that it would not stop there. At the start of the school year, Cyril Hanouna himself had announced on his show TPMP that “many appeals” were under study.
This is how, two months after the shock announcement, the Canal+ group, the parent company of C8, officially launched its counterattack. On Thursday, September 19, it announced that it was appealing to the Council of State to contest the decision taken by Arcom. Its argument is based on “three deep injustices” of which he considers himself a victim.
A sanction with serious consequences
First of all, C8 denounces the serious social consequences of the decision of the former CSA. “Jobs are at stake, an entire ecosystem is threatened”explains the channel, referring to “300 employees who have worked for almost 20 years to make it a success, as well as the many production companies with which it collaborates.”On X, Pascal Praud also paid tribute to these professionals who risk finding themselves on the street in a few months.
The second injustice denounced by C8 concerns its flagship show, Don’t touch my post. According to the channel, it is ” Above all “ because of this broadcast and its “failures” supposed that she is now overwhelmed by Arcom. However, “The authority has already heavily sanctioned C8 for this reason and there was no reason to punish it again,” estimates C8. Let us recall that the PAF policeman had already imposed 7.6 million euros in fines on it in recent years, following sequences deemed inappropriate. It seems that these record financial sanctions were not enough for Arcom, regrets the Canal+ group…
This is all the more unfair, believes Canal, because in order to avoid further problems, C8 had proposed to introduce a delay in the broadcast of the programme. Don’t touch my post and that “other commitments could have been negotiated”This proposal was unfortunately not heard, the group deplores.
A very political sanction
The Vivendi subsidiary also accuses Arcom of having redefined “as it sees fit the notion of “public interest”, which constitutes the primary criterion for the allocation of frequencies”Canal+ points out that C8 was excluded even though it is ranked as the leading DTT channel with more than 9 million cumulative viewers every day. “Everything suggests that a climate of hostility towards the channel and the type of programmes it broadcasts reigned within the Arcom collegewrites the Canal+ group. C8 cannot accommodate such a lack of objectivity and impartiality. The audiovisual policeman has clearly heard the voices on the left who are worried about the rise of “The Bolloré Empire” and denounce a lack of independence of the editorial staff vis-à-vis the Breton shareholder.
But why is editorial integrity only questioned in the case of Vincent Bolloré, and never for media owned by other billionaires, who nevertheless claim to be politically committed?
The same goes for the trial of pluralism. By giving everyone a voice (yellow vests, Islamists, thugs, activists associated with the “extreme right”…), C8 has largely participated in a freedom of expression that does not exist on most other channels. Isn’t that precisely where “public interest” ?, consider many supporters of the channel, anonymous or not.
It is now up to the Council of State to judge. But, for the Bolloré group, there is little reason to hope: the body is dominated by “judges” who are anything but neutral and whose decisions have been shocking in the past. They are the ones who, last February, ordered Arcom to better control CNews. But to think that the true interest of the public and the French people is not their subject…
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