The heated retrans fee dispute between Free and Altice has taken a new turn.
According to a report in Le Figaro, Altice, which is looking for compensation for its three free-to-air channels BFMTV, RMC Découverte and RMC Story, has told Free to stop distributing its channels from this Friday (August 16).
The Patrick Drahi company wants to be paid by operators that retransmit its channels in a stance that mirrors the strategy of commercial rivals TF1 and M6.
Altice is also the owner of SFR and runs its own mobile and IPTV services.
Negotiations with another operator, Orange, are also said to be at a standstill.
Le Figaro reports that an offer of €4 million is on the table, but covering services such as catch up, and not the original linear broadcast.