Arcom will soon launch the call for applications to reallocate 15 digital terrestrial television (DTT) frequencies. The opportunity to redistribute the cards to see new channels appear and old ones disappear.
Although it seems much less attractive today than streaming, particularly because of its linear nature, digital terrestrial television – better known by the acronym TNT – remains a simple and economical vector for massively distributing video. Still very popular in terms of audience – and not just among seniors… –, it requires neither an Internet connection – and therefore no fixed or mobile plan from an operator or ISP – nor subscription to a platform like Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video. It is now completely free for viewers, since the end of the audiovisual license fee (see our article), and all you need is a television and a compatible terrestrial antenna to benefit from it.
Since its introduction in 2005, DTT has evolved several times to increase both the image quality and the number of TV channels broadcast. Today, in mainland France, you can access 30 national channels – including 5 pay – and 42 local channels – including those of the public group France Télévisions. And since April 2016, it has used the Mpeg-4 standard instead of the Mpeg-2 of its debut, thus offering Full HD (1080p in the jargon) as standard. And while waiting for the hypothetical arrival of ultra high definition (4K UHD) with the DVB-T2/HEVC standard – a delayed development in order to free up a frequency band for mobile telephony… – it is a new landscape which is emerging in the channel offering by 2025.
TNT: 15 frequencies to be reallocated
Indeed, with certain broadcasting authorizations expiring soon, the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication – the famous Arcom, which replaces both the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) and the High Authority for Broadcasting works and the protection of rights on the internet (Hadopi) since 2022 – will launch a call for applications on February 28, 2024 to reallocate no less than 15 frequencies, and therefore as many channels. The channels occupied on the various multiplexes by C8, W9, TMC, TFX, NRJ 12, LCI, Paris Première, Canal+, BFMTV, CNews, CStar, Gulli, Canal+ Sport, Canal+ Cinéma and Planète+ will thus be brought back into play, including the contracts will end in 2025.
Of course, the owners of these channels – including the Vincent Bolloré group which notably owns Canal+, C8 and CNews – will be able to apply for their succession, including by changing their offer. But this great game of audiovisual chairs will above all be an opportunity to see new players enter this highly coveted – because very lucrative – market. We think, for example, of Xavier Niel, the emblematic creator of Iliad (Free) who had already applied – without success – in the spring of 2023 to replace M6, whose authorization had expired.
As Roch-Olivier Maistre, president of Arcom, explained in an interview with The gallerycandidates will have until mid-May to express their interest: “They will be publicly auditioned in July. At the end of these hearings, we will pre-select the selected candidates, then we will negotiate, before the end of November, the agreements while retaining a high level of commitments. The objective is to issue the authorizations before end of 2024. This is a completely transparent procedure, at all stages.”
And to add that Arcom will rely in its choices on “the criteria of pluralism of offer and public interest, which are enshrined in the law. We want there to be a great diversity of actors and we want to offer viewers a very wide choice, with various channel formats: news channels, general youth channels, etc. We hope that the candidates will put forward a “best bid”, for example in terms of support for audiovisual and cinematographic production or concerning societal commitments.”
TNT 2025: new players on the horizon?
However, despite the big speeches full of good intentions, there is reasonably little chance of seeing the emergence of new channels participating in a real increase in quality and diversity, Arte remaining from the start the only one to distinguish itself by its original programming and creative in the face of a multitude of openly touting shows. Even the France Télévisions group had to reduce its size by sacrificing France 4 a few years ago, the vacated channel being occupied in the evening by Culturebox. As with radio, which was quickly dominated by a few large private groups after the release of the airwaves at the beginning of the 1980s, French television is today in the hands of a handful of players because it takes solid backbones to ensure daily programming in a very competitive context, especially today, with streaming platforms facing us.
But there is officially hope that the PAF – the French audiovisual landscape – will be partially renewed. It is also possible that channels like C8 and CNews will be eliminated, following the controversies and lawsuits they have generated due to their treatment deemed biased by information, as Arcom pointed out at several times while inflicting Sanctions. On February 13, following a referral from Reporters Without Borders concerning the CNews channel, the Council of State asked the authority to tighten its control in matters of information pluralism.
Furthermore, this redistribution could – and even should! – be an opportunity to question the interest in granting frequencies to encrypted pay channels like Canal+ at a time when streaming via the Internet seems much more suited to pay services. We therefore hope that this call for applications will allow Arcom to fundamentally review the free television offering in France, for the good of all, and not just for the benefit of a few private groups with purely financial motivations.