Which buttons on your remote will you soon have to press to watch your favorite TV channels? The stopping of C8 et NRJ12 The end of February could lead to a change in numbering on digital terrestrial television (DTT), an important issue in terms of audiences.
The main criterion will be “public interest”assured Roch-Olivier Maistre, outgoing president of Arcom, in December. The audiovisual regulator must rule very soon on the numbering, after having carried out consultations with the channels.
Eleven DTT frequencies were reallocated in December. Arcom has selected two new channels in place of C8 et NRJ12 : one launched by the CMI France group, owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, the other by West France.
The very popular 4, 8 and 12
From March, numbers 8 and 12 will therefore be free. The 19th is already there: it was that of France Ohchannel stopped in 2020. The 4th of Canal+ will be in June, the date on which the pay channel will leave TNT.
The 4, the 8 and the 12 attract envy because being in the first numbers is considered an advantage for the audience: the lower a number is, the better we memorize it and the quicker we come across it when scrolling through the channels on the remote. In recent months, several channels have carried out intense lobbying to advance in the schedule.
Such a change would be unprecedented since the creation of TNT in 2005 because, until then, the latest arrivals took the latest numbers. But it was “of a use”which can therefore evolve, underlined Roch-Olivier Maistre.
News channels grouped together?
In this great goose game, public channels LCP et Public Senatewhich share channel 13, could jump to number 8, we understand The Echoes et Le Figaro. Still according to the Figaro, France 4youth and cultural channel of the public group France Télévisions, could leave number 14 to replace Canal+ on the 4th in June.
But this lottery is a headache. “As soon as you start moving a number, obviously it has cascading consequences”recognized the president of Arcom. The toughest battle is taking place among the four news channels. LCI (channel 26) and Franceinfo (27, last issue of free national channels) would like to get closer to the leaders BFMTV (15) et CNews (16).
“The very distant numbering of LCI is a handicap »assured the Figaro at the end of August Thierry Thuillier, head of information for the TF1 group, to which LCI. In October, Roch-Olivier Maistre indicated that Arcom was considering forming “a block of information channels” to group the four into neighboring numbers.
A prospect that does not delight BFMTV. “In the name of disrupting the habits of the French? »thunders Fabien Namias, new general director of this channel, present on TNT from its first months.
Gulli vise le top 10
Himself a defector from LCIthe boss of BFMTV dispute this “categorical demand exerted by certain news channels which are disadvantaged because they arrived late on the market”. Indeed, Franceinfo has existed since 2016, when LCI became free.
Central in the equation, the fate of the news channels is not the only one at stake. “The natural place of Gold is in the top 10 »thus pleaded Monday in Le Figaro Philippe Bony, president of the M6 group’s youth channel, currently at number 18.
Another unknown, the place that the two new channels will occupy, knowing that that of West France will only broadcast from September. “The demand that we both make is to be as high as possible, 8 and 12, or at least in the first half of the numbering”argued Fabrice Bakhouche, general manager of the Sipa Ouest-France group, at the end of November during a conference organized by the consulting firm NPA.
