The news channel of the Bolloré galaxy CNews launched on Tuesday a streaming version, CNews Prime, accessible from boxes and on the Internet, to expand its offering beyond DTT.
“Because a single channel is not enough to cover all the wealth of national and international news, CNews Prime complements the linear antenna” of traditional TV, announced on X the general director of Canal + France, Gérald-Brice Viret.
It is about “allowing everyone to follow all the speeches live, access behind the scenes of the channel and benefit from content carried by our journalists and incarnations”, he added.
Rebroadcasts of “L’heure des pros” by Pascal Praud
Tuesday morning, CNews Prime broadcast live a trip by the Ministers of Culture and National Education, Rachida Dati and Édouard Geffray, and a rebroadcast of its flagship daily show, “L’heure des pros”, hosted by Pascal Praud.
The new channel, whose launch was announced by the site Les Jours on November 14, also plans to broadcast the question session to the government at the National Assembly on Tuesday, it indicates on the screen.
CNews Prime arrives on the screens while its big sister has established itself at the top of the news channels in France and achieved its new monthly record in October, reaching the 4% mark in audience share, according to figures from Médiamétrie.
It is launched on the day when the parliamentary commission of inquiry into “neutrality”, “operation” and “financing” of public broadcasting is due to start, in an increasingly tense context between its pillars France Télévisions and Radio France and the media in the sphere of conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré (CNews, JDD, Europe 1).
CNews is accused by left-wing politicians of promoting the ideas of the extreme right, which it disputes. In the wake of the controversy over journalists Thomas Legrand and Patrick Cohen, accused of collusion with the left after the broadcast of a video where they are seen in a café with two PS officials, the president of France Télévisions Delphine Ernotte had described CNews, which had extensively commented on the affair, as an “extreme right” channel.
Radio France and France Télévisions have since taken CNews, Europe 1 and JDD before the Economic Activities Court for “denigration”. For their part, the media in the Bolloré sphere accuse public broadcasting of being biased towards the left.