C8, NRJ12 and Web TV Le Média refer the matter to the Council of State to challenge the preselection of Arcom

Now that the blow has passed, here is the start of the legal response from disappointed television channel editors. Less than two months after the announcement of the non-renewal of its digital terrestrial television (DTT) frequency in 2025, the C8 channel announced, on Thursday, September 19, in a press release, that it had referred the matter to the Council of State through an interim suspension order to contest the decision of the audiovisual regulator. The day before, Wednesday, September 18, the NRJ group had done the same for its channel NRJ12, whose broadcasting authorization will also expire on February 28.

At the end of July, the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom) listed the pre-selected candidates for the reallocation of 15 TV frequencies in 2025, including two new entrants, RéelsTV (from the CMI group, owned by Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky) and OFTV (Ouest France group)… but not two exits, C8 and NRJ12. The former has totaled 7.6 million euros in fines and around thirty sanctions since 2012, while the latter’s schedule is filled with reruns for a very low audience.

The subsidiary of Vivendi, a group whose majority shareholder is the ultra-conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, believes it will see “deep injustices” in the unprecedented decision of Arcom. C8 accuses the regulator in particular of having redefined “as he pleases” the concept “of public interest” and to wear ” a massive and disproportionate attack on the very existence of the company”with 300 employees and “the many production companies with which it collaborates” for almost twenty years.

“Priority imperative of pluralism”

“Everything suggests that a climate of hostility towards the channel and the type of programmes it broadcasts reigned within the Arcom college. C8 cannot accept such a lack of objectivity and impartiality.”writes the Canal+ group. Another reject, the NRJ group stated in its press release on Wednesday that the ” decision ” not to keep his channel among the pre-selected ones “is already a grievance (…) which justifies the referral to the administrative judge without waiting for Arcom to publish its final decisions”.

Another candidate disappointed by the decision of Arcom, the radical left web TV Le Média also deplores the “lack of transparency” of the process of “preselection” and announced on Friday September 13 his intention to take administrative action.

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