M6 METROPOLE TELEVISION: PARIS PREMIÈRE’S FUTURE THREATENED BY THE CSA’S DECISION

Regulatory News:

M6 Group (Paris:MMT) takes note of the CSA’s decision not to approve Paris Première’s switch to free-to-air broadcasting.

Established 28 years ago, Paris Première is a historic channel that has offered since its creation an ambitious editorial line to its audience and would have contributed greatly to the diversity of the French audiovisual landscape as a free-to-air DTT channel. Paris Première vigorously contests the specific reasons given by the CSA to account for the ruling concerning the supposed analogies with existing services. Paris Première reminds having confirmed its original positioning in the commitments sent earlier to the CSA.

The switchover of Paris Première to free-to-air DTT was the opportunity to combine a quality TV offering and financial equilibrium; the channel’s business model is being jeopardized by the CSA’s ruling.

This decision is all the more disputable that studies previously conducted showed that, of all applications submitted, Paris Première was the channel that would have had the least difficulty in changing its financing model, which for the record was an opportunity provided by the law.

As a result, M6 Group disapproves of this decision. Pending the reply of broadcasting platforms, whose opinion it will seek, the Group reserves the right to use all means of redress at its disposal to review the situation thus created by the CSA’s ruling.