Small conflict between friends. Since Friday, the cloth burns seriously between Alain Weill, the chairman of Altice, and Xavier Niel, the boss of the Company, once a financial partner… Alain Weill. The reason for this? A dispute concerning the terms of a new distribution agreement. Altice request now Free to pay a fee for the distribution of BFMTV, BFM Business, RMC Discovery and RMC Story. This he flatly refuses. The cul-de-sac of negotiations has led to the explosion yesterday of the situation, Altice ending in a ” blame-Free “hack for the delivery of the signal of its channels”.
A decision to Altice is the origin of this new bickering. Free refused to get out the checkbook, Altice announced that its “chains and associated services are not officially, legally and contractually available to the Freebox TV”. And to add: “We found Thursday, April 4, that Free has already stopped the broadcast of BFM Business and the replay of all channels. This detrimental situation for the viewers is solely attributable to the Free.”
“It looks like “alerts abductions”, to announce the disappearance of the strings”
But, coup de theatre, a few hours later, BFMTV, BFM Business, RMC Discovery and RMC Story were available for the 6.4 million subscribers to the Freebox! Where the charges of piracy brought by Altice. Free responds that he has “re-distribution” is based on article 1.1 of the convention these strings with the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA) “which forces to enable their recovery on ADSL networks and Fiber”. The group of Xavier Niel is unworthy also of the messages displayed on BFMTV, informing the viewers of the removal of the chain of the Freebox. “It looks like “alerts abductions”, to announce the disappearance of the strings”, gets a close to the folder. In sum, Altice would use its antennae to weigh in the negotiations.
The CSA seized of a dispute resolution procedure
“If Free was in good faith, he would have made a counter-proposal. But we never got response”
the origin of The conflict dates back to 20 march, the date on which the agreement distribution between the two groups is, in fact, expired. Altice now wants to be paid for by Free to its four channels and the services associated with it. The amount claimed was close to 5 million euros. “We have asked to discuss over the past nine months now. We are open to discussion. If Free was in good faith, he would have made a counter-proposal. But we never got response”, recently said Alain Weill, CEO of Altice France, in the Figaro . Iliad would have “refused to negotiate an agreement of distribution channels”, explains Altice. For its part, Iliad, the parent company of Free, was said not to have “received true commercial proposal” from Altice.
” READ ALSO – the Conflict between the chains Altice and Free
on The 18th of march last, seeing the situation worsen, the CSA had proposed to play the conciliators. Altice was presented at the rendez-vous. Free had opted for the policy of the empty chair. And since then, radio silence from both sides. Until last Monday, the date on which Altice has entered officially in the CSA a dispute resolution procedure, “in order that an equitable solution can be found”. This procedure is today “entry into pre-trial phase,” said the gendarme of the audiovisual. It could extend over two months, even if this term is not constrained. To be clear, the statement could go more quickly or more slowly. The group Altice, in the meantime, know that the situation is “unacceptable, unprecedented, and harmful to the viewers, rights holders, the producers.” His chains would therefore take “all appropriate legal, regulatory and judicial adapted in the face of this illegal situation”. Suffice to say that the tension is not about to back down.
