Shadow
06-07-2019, 07:32
TF1 pulls channels from Molotov, but relay continues July 5, 2019 12.24 Europe/London By Julian Clover TF1 has officially removed its channels from the Molotov OTT platform after failing to reach an agreement over their continued carriage. TF1, TMC, TFX, TF1 Series Films and LCI were removed by TF1 overnight on July 1st, only to be restored by Molotov a few hours later. The leading French commercial broadcaster is now seeking their permanent removal and has served Molotov with a summons for infringement. In return, Molotov also sued TF1 for the maintenance of the commercial contract. The decision is expected mid-July. Although Molotov paid a carriage fee for the channels, TF1 regarded their presence as experimental. The situation was made worse when Molotov missed a couple of payments. In February, The Paris Commercial Court ruled in favour of Molotov in a dispute over the carriage of commercial channel M6. The dispute began in late 2017, when M6 began to insist that its channels be counted a pay-TV, rather than sit in the free tier.