The French commercial broadcaster TF1 has said that its bouquet of thematic channels will stay exclusively with CanalSat for the next two years. The channels in question are Eurosport, Eurosport 2, LCI, TV Breizh, Histoire and Ushuaïa TV.
In a statement, it added that “the main operators expressed a definite interest in distributing the channels. The Canal+ group, Orange, Free, SFR, TV Numéric, TNS, Parabole Réunion and Mediaserv made financial bids for non-exclusive distribution rights to some or all of these channels.”
“However, the bids submitted by the operators did not offer sufficient financial reward to justify the TF1 Group taking them further, given the state of the market and the crisis in the advertising sector. The results of the consultation exercise have confirmed the validity of the economic model of the TF1 Group’s theme channels, which have an option to renew their exclusive distribution contract for 2010 and 2011.”
See also coverage of the issue in Broadband TV News passim.
