France’s Conseil d’État has ruled Arcom was within the law when it chose not to renew the DTT licences of the Canal+ channel C8 and NRJ 12.
The media regulator said the decision validated its selection process that had been made in the public interest and current opinion.
The Conseil d’État also invited Arcom to hold a new impact assessment and public consultation procedure to assess whether a new call for applications should be launched to allocate the frequencies vacated by Canal+ following its decision not to accept the offer of a new licence for its pay-TV channel.
In a statement, Canal+ said it deeply regrets the Conseil d’Etat’s decision to reject C8’s appeal.
The broadcaster described the decision to remove the 20 year old channel as unprecedented and had put the jobs of 400 employees at risk.
Two new channels T18 and OFTV will be available on DTT from 6 June and 1 September 2025 respectively.
