TF1 & Altice take step toward TFX sale

French broadcaster TF1’s planned sale of its TFX channel to Altice Group has taken a step forwards after employee representative bodies of TF1 delivered their opinion and approved the proposal.

Following that approval, TF1 and Altice have signed agreements relating to the sale.

Completion of the deal is still subject to obtaining clearance from the French Competition Authority and telecom regulator Arcom, and to completion of the proposed merger between the TF1 and M6 groups.

Consequently, the TFX channel will remain under the full control of the TF1 group throughout 2022.

Last month both TF1 and M6 began exclusive negotiations with Altice Media for the sale of two key entertainment channels owned by the broadcasters to Patrick Drahi’s group.

While TF1 kicked off talks to sell the TFX channel to Altice, M6 granted exclusive negotiation rights to Altice Media for the sale of 6ter, also conditional on approval of the merger being granted.

The pair said the sale of female-focused entertainment channel, TFX, formerly known as NT1, and entertainment channel 6ter would help the combined group comply with French legislation by avoiding it being in the position of owning more than seven DTT channels.

M6 also plans to return the DTT frequency currently held by its Paris Première channel to the state in order to comply with the rules. However, Paris Première will continue to be owned by the combined group and will broadcast on cable and satellite.