C8 loses its frequency, Ouest-France TV and Réels TV arrive on screens

C8 loses its frequency, Ouest-France TV and Réels TV arrive on screens

On Wednesday, July 24, Arcom, the audiovisual regulator, decided not to renew the TNT frequencies of the channels C8 and NRJ12. Two newcomers will replace them on television: Ouest-France TV and Réels TV.

In 2025, Cyril Hanouna, live on your television screens, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Friday, to host Do not touch My TV, it will be a thing of the past. At least, on the C8 channel. On Wednesday, July 24, the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom) decided not to retain the channels C8 – owned by the Canal+ group owned by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré – and NRJ12, for the reallocation of fifteen Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) frequencies.

Since July 8, 24 candidates have appeared before Arcom to present their audiovisual project and attempt to obtain or renew their frequency on free television, starting in 2025, and for a maximum duration of ten years. At the end of these auditions, two newcomers obtained their frequency: Ouest-France TV, from the Ouest-France press group, Réels TV, from the CMI France group, owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.

These new channels are in addition to the thirteen outgoing channels that have been renewed: BFMTV , Canal+ , Canal+ Cinema , Canal+ Sport , CNews , Cstar , Gulli , LCI , Paris First , Planet + , TFX , TMC And W9 . Their numbering on TNT will be examined in the autumn and a “logical number” will be assigned to them.

7.6 million euros fine for C8

The C8 channel is the first to suffer the consequences of this arbitration based, according to the audiovisual policeman, on “the interest of each project for the public with regard to the priority imperative of pluralism of socio-cultural currents of expression”.

Weakened by the serial excesses of its star presenter Cyril Hanouna, C8 is paying the price of multiple sanctions against it. The channel has accumulated 7.6 million euros in fines “over the last eight years” which puts her in “a box apart” recalled Benoît Loutrel, member of Arcom, during the hearings.

In total, since 2016 and its acquisition by Canal+, the channel whose flagship program Do not touch My TV relying on live broadcasts and the energetic and sulphurous personality of its host Cyril Hanouna, has accumulated 25 warnings, formal notices and fines from Arcom.

Debate over freedom of expression

Since the announcement of the disappearance of C8 in 2025, the channel’s defenders have denounced an attack on freedom of expression while DTT remains the exclusive reception mode for nearly 20% of French households. According to Arcom, these channels constitute “the most structuring offer in the French audiovisual landscape” and represent “more than 90% of the total television audience.”

Among the political class, on the right of the spectrum, there is denunciation of a “censorship”. “The most popular free channel is gagged,” deplores Éric Ciotti, the contested leader of the Republicans, now joined the National Rally. On the left, the suppression of C8 sounds like a first victory against Vincent Bolloré’s media empire. “Not everything is allowed in France. And particularly not to ignore the rules of pluralism” rejoiced the Green MP Sandrine Rousseau. However, many left-wing personalities deplore the fact that among the fifteen reassigned frequencies, six are owned by the Breton businessman with open connections to the French far right, and denounce a concentration of media. There is no doubt that among these six channels, Cyril Hanouna will easily bounce back on the small screen.

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