TV Live Forum

matthieu1221 post_id=52483 time=1636367746 user_id=1634 Wrote:

Medianext.MX post_id=52382 time= user_id=1455 Wrote:France Télévisions has unveiled initial plans for its FTA coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Coverage will be shared between France 2, France 3, the france.tv website, and the France TV Sport app. Starting with this event, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee FTA channel, Sport en France (available via direct satellite, the Altice/SFR cable network, the boxes and as a free AVOD service), will join as a broadcasting partner resulting from a content exchange agreement between the Committee, Reworld Media's audiovisual division (which produces the channel on an outsourcing agreeement) and France Télévisions, theretofore replacing France 4, which has since refocused as a linear outlet for their Okoo and Culturebox digital brands.

The biggest reveal of their coverage plans was of their virtual set, designed by Dreamwall, Franck Felleman and La Fabrique France Télévisions. Still on the line of the Tokyo Olympics "bubble", this time, is a geodesic dome à la Crystal Maze located over a suspended platform in the mountains. Still no info on where the set will be located in Beijing or on France Télévisions' dedicated VR studio (Studio Janine-Thiers) in their Grand Paris HQ.

Given China's current COVID policy it will most likely be in Paris as was with Tokyo 2020.

I think for Tokyo they broadcast from Club France in the city itself, in the Fuji Television/Fuji Media Holdings Building in Odaiba (though presentation was remotely controlled from Paris). This time, most likely, they are staying home in the Studio Janine-Thiers.

In other news, Franceinfo is still in the long process of updating their presentation. Today they began broadcasting their simultaneous radiovision shows (from Studio 221 in the Maison de la Radio) from a completely new set:





Here's an analysis from Lenodal's Valetin Socha (aka azerty774):

https://twitter.com/valentinsocha/status...4453305345

It looks like Radio France have gone for a partial VR set which looks ghastly. The previous studio for the tv simulcasts was a lot better than this.

Medianext.MX post_id=52513 time= user_id=1455 Wrote:Here's an analysis from Lenodal's Valetin Socha (aka azerty774):

https://twitter.com/valentinsocha/status...4453305345

Thanks for the relay, but Valentin and I are not the same person, although we both work for Lenodal, the French equivalent of TVLive. :mrgreen:

matthieu1221 post_id=52483 time= user_id=1634 Wrote:Given China's current COVID policy it will most likely be in Paris as was with Tokyo 2020.

Actually, the FTV team was in Tokyo (at the France Olympique HQ) in a green studio, while the VR effect was added in Paris.

azerty774 post_id=52554 time= user_id=1374 Wrote:Thanks for the relay, but Valentin and I are not the same person, although we both work for Lenodal, the French equivalent of TVLive.

Oops! Sorry so much! Anyway, I won't confuse both of you anymore. But, with that said, we're glad you're here!

London Lite post_id=52551 time= user_id=953 Wrote:It looks like Radio France have gone for a partial VR set which looks ghastly. The previous studio for the tv simulcasts was a lot better than this.

Yep, it looks horrible. The previous studio was better and it combines much better with the main Franceinfo tv studio.

Medianext.MX post_id=52580 time= user_id=1455 Wrote:Yep, it looks horrible. The previous studio was better and it combines much better with the main Franceinfo tv studio.

It certainly competes with Channel 5 (UK) revamped news bulletin for poor use of colours. I think Franceinfo's radio station studio set has pipped them to winning the unofficial worst new set of the day award.

Big news for the leading French OTT service: The owners of Molotov, among others, its founders Jean-David Blanc, Pierre Lescure and Jean-Marc Denoualhas, as well as Iliad/Free owner Xavier Niel, have sold the service to American vMVPD fuboTV. The acquisition is estimated at €164.3 million and is set to close early next year. Blanc will become Chief Strategy Officer for the entire fuboTV group, whilst remaining chairman of Molotov. This concludes a botched acquisition process after Altice faied to acquire Molotov in 2019, resulting on the company having some financial difficulties, which were resolved after Niel (as a personal investor) took over as a stakeholder.

https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2021/11/...s-molotov/

fuboTV is an American vMVPD founded by David Gandler (CEO), Alberto Horihuela (CMO) and Sung Ho Choi, which initially provided an all-football and sport streaming service, before switching to a more general service. It already provides services in Europe, specifically, in Spain, alongside the USA and Canada. fuboTV plans to use Molotov as a lynchpin to expand its customer availability, as Molotov already provides service in France and many Francophone African territories, like Côté d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Cameroon and Morocco, with a forthcoming launch for the Democratic Republic of Congo on the works.

Molotov has the better streaming service personally, they were very quick to offer Full HD before Salto was even launched and after some legal issues have the M6 channels on board and I believe they have catch up for the Altice channels, although they don't have all of the BFM regions. Paris and Lyon are the only channels alongside BFMTV and the RMC portfolio on the platform. Fubo on the other hand is 720p in the United States, even for channels that output in 1080i/p on other platforms, such as YouTube TV.

It makes me wonder if Altice would have launched RMC BFM Play if they had Molotov instead?

My guess is that Fubo will use the Fubo brand to launch in the UK, Ireland and non-French speaking countries (using Molotov's software), while the Molotov brand continues to be used in France and Francophone African countries.

A short clip of the France 3 DOG with regional branding underneath.

https://twitter.com/SensuelleEt/status/1...9938332672

Important update on the TF1-M6 merger, Iliad and Canal+Group want to take the merger to the European Commission after the CSA and the French Ministry of Culture gave their full support to the merger, the French Competition Authority has still to review it https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2021/11/...ommission/ So what do you all think about this development?

In another update According to Challenges , the TPMP host Cyril Hanouna ia apparently ready to put 200 million euros on the table to buy W9 and TFX in the event of a TF1 / M6 merger. He would negotiate with the management teams of the potential future group who would rather want to get rid of 6ter and TF1 Séries Films.

These things are rarely truly about competition but more about political will.

Roger Darthwell post_id=53832 time= user_id=1160 Wrote:Important update on the TF1-M6 merger, Iliad and Canal+Group want to take the merger to the European Commission after the CSA and the French Ministry of Culture gave their full support to the merger, the French Competition Authority has still to review it https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2021/11/...ommission/ So what do you all think about this development?

I think Canal+ and Iliad/Free are right. The TF1 and M6 is a mega-merger, so they are doing it right. Remember that TF1 and M6 have a combined 66% in Salto, which could unbalance the joint venture and put France Télévisions in a bad position, because the authorities have explained they can't promote Salto on their TV channels other than brief mentions in promos, and it must remain separate from My TF1 and 6play (the merged company could merge both services within Salto, which clearly goes against the restrictions). Additionally, if they use warehousing to disguise the overrun of TNT channels they have, it would be investigated in the sense of using sister holding companies. Additionally, it could weaken Canal+ and Free, because this would lead to carriage disputes like in the USA, and clearly unprofit their FTA vehicles (either on TNT or satellite).

Canal+ does not do vertically integrated things at this extent. Although they have MyCanal as a common OTT service, there are clear differences between the Replay service (which houses C8 and CSTAR, as well as Canal+'s FTA programmes) and the SVOD service, exclusive to (Le Bouquet) Canal+'s subscribers.

Roger Darthwell post_id=53833 time=1637098934 user_id=1160 Wrote:In another update According to Challenges , the TPMP host Cyril Hanouna ia apparently ready to put 200 million euros on the table to buy W9 and TFX in the event of a TF1 / M6 merger. He would negotiate with the management teams of the potential future group who would rather want to get rid of 6ter and TF1 Séries Films.

Really? This could be the right direction for C8. They have struggled to find an identity, as half of their programmes are H2O-produced, which clearly targets a young audience, which goes against the direction Bolloré has lately gone, to target a elderly, conservative audience (although not in a way may I support). Additionally, the H2O programmes could easily fit within W9 and TFX and give some variety out of the eternity of police chase and crime scene realities.

Brekkie post_id=53835 time=1637099638 user_id=976 Wrote:These things are really truly about competition but more about political will.

Well... The current French government is in favour of mega-mergers, so I don't think this is related to any kind of political will. Another thing is that it could have any kind of lobbying matter.

Medianext.MX post_id=53837 time= user_id=1455 Wrote:Really? This could be the right direction for C8. They have struggled to find an identity, as half of their programmes are H2O-produced, which clearly targets a young audience, which goes against the direction Bolloré has lately gone, to target a elderly, conservative audience (although not in a way may I support). Additionally, the H2O programmes could easily fit within W9 and TFX and give some variety out of the eternity of police chase and crime scene realities.

My French speaking mother has enjoyed the old films C8 has recently scheduled, but that jars with TPMP and the other younger skewed early evening programming produced by H20. She can't stand Cyril as well due to his controversy in recent years.

W9 and TFX would benefit from having a company that already skews to W9/TFX's demographic on C8 and would allow Cyril to take his formats over there without having to deal with Canal to get his shows recommissioned.

I remember seeing, a while back, a Facebook page and a website for a group in France who were setting up a mock 'Channel 4 France' station, as if it had launched in the 80's. The page had idents, trails, behind the scene stuff and other bits that I can't remember now. I've been trying to trace it for a while and thought this would be a good place to ask. Anybody any idea what I'm rambling about?

[mention]LukeHarrison[/mention] That mock TV station is known as TV Quatre. The project still is very much alive: although that particular website is now offline, they still maintain their YouTube channel and even update their social media.

It is a project led by a team of some members from the French equivalent of this space, Lenodal, which pioneered the first wave of web TV channels in France with WT4, later known as WBS TV. Some members of that team reunited and launched TVQ (alternate name) in 2017, as a satire web-TV channel mocking French TV in the 80s, imagining an alternate universe where Canal+ had not been licensed to broadcast, instead, the government supposedly giving it to a Italian real estate businessman, Giovanni del Paddington. The channel does not broadcast in a regular basis, and has aired three live broadcasts on YouTube which have been successful, all done with authentic 80s transmission materials, even with real life-like ad breaks! And that's what I know, sadly, but I hope somebody from that particular project is able to retell the story behind that project and WBS/WT4, because I might be wrong. I did really enjoy, however, the excellent projects done by these people!

In the meantime, here's a look at the really cheesy graphics done by motion and graphic designer Eric Azara:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EFwY7G230A