Faced with the persistent disinterest in paid TNT, Arch now plans to reserve the frequencies released by Canal+ for new free services. The regulator has just launched a public consultation.
It is soon the end of the adventure for four paid channels on TNT. On June 6, Canal+, Canal+ Cinema, Canal+ Sport And planet+ will stop emitting. A decision fraught with consequences, since it releases frequencies hitherto occupied by the Vivendi subsidiary.
In this context, the Arcom announced on April 30 the launch of a public consultation on the future of these radio resources. “As of June 6, 2025, the Canal Plus group stopped the activity of its four paid channels on digital terrestrial television (TNT), making available from the radio resource that could be assigned to audiovisual services”, Indicates the audiovisual regulator in a press release.
In a decision of February 19, 2025 on several contentious appeals relating to the appeal to candidacies, the Council of State indicated that it came back to the authority for the regulation of audiovisual and digital communication to implement the procedure in article 31 of the law of September 30, 1986 and, thus, to conduct a public consultation and an impact study “In order to decide whether the economic situation in the sector is favorable to the launch of a call for applications for the four authorizations not having been awarded or if it should, on the contrary, differ from two years, renewable once, from the deadline for the current authorizations concerned”.
Three scenarios that tend towards future authorizations for free national services
This public consultation takes place in this context. Its purpose is to collect by June 13 the contributions of audiovisual actors, but also of any interested party, on the future uses of these niches now available. Look more closely, three reuse scenarios of the available radio resource are envisaged, indicates the Arcom and to add that they correspond to “Use for which brands of interest have been expressed or for which experiments are underway, and are not mutually exclusive. The first scenario relates to the authorization of new television services, adding to those already authorized. The second studies the possibility of offering in improved, double -disseminated formats, services already authorized. The third proposes to consider the deployment of mobile television services Broadcast. ”
Today, the conviction of the regulator is founded. For several years, no new actor has come forward to launch a paying service on TNT, especially during calls for candidates in 2018 and 2024. This lack of interest is part of a decline in decline initiated between 2008 and 2014. From June 6, 2025, only Paris Première will remain disseminated in paid TNT. Consequently, the Arcom now envisages only the authorization of new free “national services”. It could therefore be new free channels, technical innovations such as 4K, or other forms of diffusion.
This article was included on the Univers Freebox site
