[London Lite]

Some good news in that TF1 and Canal+ have reached an agreement to distribute their channels again.

The channels will return to Canal+, TNTSAT and MyCanal from Monday.

www.tf1info.fr 

[Medianext.MX]

After two years of negotiations, Orange is finally selling its OCS premium channels and the Orange Studio production company to Canal+ Group. Canal+ plans to merge OCS into its Canal+ premium pack, whilst Orange Studio will be subsumed into StudioCanal.

www.ozap.com 

Orange cède OCS, son service de télé payante, à Canal+ - Puremedias
C'est officiel. Principal distributeur et actionnaire à plus de 33% d'OCS, Canal…
  Source: www.ozap.com

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France Télévisions' cultural division is seeing a moment of change. Former Canal+ presenter Michel Field was named by Delphine Ernotte as the broadcaster's new cultural programming controller, but its first move has been controversial: after being renewed for the ongoing season, the Sunday arts magazine Passage des Arts, presented by TF1's former weekend newsreader Claire Chazal, has been cancelled after airing its final show of 2022, resulting on a protest by Chazal herself on Télérama. It was followed by another made by 163 big name personalities in the sector, which was published on yesterday's Journal du Dimanche. The final show will air this weekend.

The show will be replaced by a new weekly magazine, Beau geste, which will feature Canal+ legend and C à vous chroniqueur Pierre Lescure. The show will only focus on cinema, and is part of FTV's coverage of the Cannes Film Festival, with the show serving as a thematic show in the run-up to the event. The show, which is being outsourced to Black Dynamite Productions, a well-regarded independent producer of non-fiction content owned by C à vous producer Mediawan, will mix documentary-style elements with heavy cues of Pierre Tchernia's legendary programme Monsieur Cinéma (which mixed cinema news and reviews with a game show related to the industry) and Lescure's experience in the entertainment and cinema industry, including his stint as Cannes Film Festival president.

Additionally, Michel Field plans to boost the prominence of its genre-specific culture programmes (e.g. La Grande Librairie, Basique, Taratata, live entertainment evenings), and increase the number of original productions airing on Culturebox (one of two core strands on France 4/LCN 14).

www.ozap.com 

"C'est brutal !" : Claire Chazal annonce l'arrêt de "Passage des arts" sur Franc…
Claire Chazal crie à l'injustice. La journaliste a affirmé, ce jeudi, dans les p…
  Source: www.ozap.com

www.ozap.com 

"Nous regrettons vivement l'arrêt de 'Passage des Arts'" : 163 personnalités int…
Ils ne comprennent pas. Ce mardi 20 décembre, pas moins de 163 personnalités ont…
  Source: www.ozap.com

www.ozap.com 

Pierre Lescure animera "Beau geste", une nouvelle émission de cinéma, dès le dim…
Nouveauté dans la grille de France 2. Le groupe France Télévisions a annoncé, ce…
  Source: www.ozap.com

[London Lite]

Nice to know it's not just the UK PSBs who are dumbing down arts output.

So we now have Canal owning not just the Cine+ movie channels as part of the MultiThématiques subsidiary, but also OCS.

[Medianext.MX]

Here we go again... Canal+ has dropped the Warner Bros. Discovery channels (the former WarnerMedia channels, to make it clear) on a new carriage dispute affecting the group's pay TV satellite and IPTV offerings. This includes Warner TV, which was exclusively distributed through Canal+; the channel is not closing, as it is being shopped to the other IPTV and vMVPD operators. Eurosport remains on the Canal+ offering due to a separate deal being in place. The group's factual channels, however, remain exclusive to Altice France.

www.ozap.com 

Canal+ : Les chaînes Warner Bros. Discovery retirées de MyCanal "faute d'accord"…
Canal+ gagne OCS, lundi, et perd les chaînes Warner Bros. Discovery, mardi. Les …
  Source: www.ozap.com

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After the cancellation of France 3's soap Plus belle la vie, the regional channel has struggled to find a full-time temporary replacement for the long-running drama. After attempting to fill the slot with repeats of its midday shows Cuisine ouverte and Les 100 lieux qu'il faut voir (and eventually fail with such), Jean-Luc Lemoine's show Samedi d'en rire will be adapted into a shorter daily format. No word if this will be new episodes or will be simply repurposed repeats of previous editions. However, this is a temporary measure, as the permanent replacement is set to debut this Spring,  the new daily Paris 2024 newscast with Carole Gaessler.

www.ozap.com 

Jean-Luc Lemoine hérite de la case de "Plus belle la vie" dès ce soir - Puremedi…
Depuis l'arrêt de Plus belle la vie, France 3 peine à trouver un programme capab…
  Source: www.ozap.com

[London Lite]

There's plenty of content from Samedi d'en rire that can be rehashed for filler content.

For those who don't know the format, it's a nostalgia show that features archive comedy and music content, alongside light-hearted chat in the studio and plugging of nostalgic shows/books etc which targets the older France 3 demographic.

A typical show would have songs from the 60s and 70s, comedy from French comedy legends like Coluche and Élie Kakou and nostalgic discussion with two other people in the studio.

[W. Knight]

After two years of negotiations, Orange is finally selling its OCS premium channels and the Orange Studio production company to Canal+ Group. Canal+ plans to merge OCS into its Canal+ premium pack, whilst Orange Studio will be subsumed into StudioCanal.

First move after the acquisition: OCS Choc and OCS City are merged into OCS Pulp, positioning as the home for drama TV series and indies.
advanced-television.com 

OCS Pulp replaces OCS City and Choc | Advanced Television
French telco Orange is launching a new OCS channel, OCS Pulp, on January 12th 20…
  Source: advanced-television.com

[London Lite]

Samedi d'en rire - La Quotidienne starts on Monday 30th January at 20h20 on France 3.

The new cue cards suggest these will be new episodes.

[Medianext.MX]

Salto, the ambitious project launched by TF1, France Télévisions and M6 to compete with Netflix, is done and dusted. After studying a sell-off (and even rumors that Spanish telco MásMóvil wanted to take it over), French media reports the streamer will shut on Friday. Amazon and Canal+ are interested on buying the streamer's subscriber base and exclusive content deals.

deadline.com 

French Streamer Salto Set To Shutter – Reports – Deadline
It looks like the end of the road for Salto, the French streamer backed by the c…
  Source: deadline.com

Since it debuted in November 2020, Salto has failed to reach the levels of subscription of its longer-established rivals (including local streamers Molotov and myCanal), and, in November, in the aftermath of the failed TF1-M6 merger, both groups stepped down, leaving France Télévisions as sole shareholder.

deadline.com 

Future Of “French Netflix’ Salto Hangs In The Balance – Deadline
Broadcasting rivals TF1, M6 and France Télévisions launched streamer in October …
  Source: deadline.com

[London Lite]

Salto was a pain to use. I had to cancel because my 2017 Nvidia Shield was no longer compatible with my device despite updating the software and OS.

Clearly the failed merger between TF1 and M6 killed it, which led to both parties developing and expanding their own VOD services and recently Molotov acquired the rights to content from My TF1 rather than making viewers record from their channels to catch-up.

Molotov will be the main benefactor from Salto's closure. They have rights to content from TF1 (except the pay tv side), M6, NRJ Group (NRJ12/Chérie 25), Altice (BFM/RMC channels) and France Télévisions.

[Medianext.MX]

Molotov will be the main benefactor from Salto's closure.  They have rights to content from TF1 (except the pay tv side), M6, NRJ Group (NRJ12/Chérie 25), Altice (BFM/RMC channels) and France Télévisions.

Speaking of which, Molotov plans to boost its FAST and AVOD offering Mango during the coming months, including spinning off this offering into a new brand and a separate platform. Co-founder Jean-David Blanc has also told (in an interview with Satellifacts) the entire fuboTV group (including Molotov) will be renamed this summer, citing a need to find a stronger brand recognition and allow for a global expansion beyond North America, France, Spain and French Africa. An improved and unified user interface and experience is also being worked with both fuboTV and Molotov developers, combining Molotov's existing UI framework and delivery infrastructure with fuboTV's in-app sports data integration, and will debut in the French operation this summer.

www.broadbandtvnews.com 

New brand for unified Molotov-fuboTV in Summer 2023
The co-founder of the French OTT platform Molotov has said the company intends t…
  Source: www.broadbandtvnews.com