TNT numbering: The Team wants its share of the pie in the waltz of numbers

It’s the turn of the L’Équipe channel to tackle the thorny issue of TNT numbering. According to our information, the group solemnly wrote to Arcom (formerly CSA) at the beginning of November to declare its candidacy to take over the number of C8 or that of NRJ 12. At least if the Council of State confirms by the month of January the closure of the two chains.

This Friday, the supreme judges of administrative law decided to wait a few more weeks and the publication of the notification of the final decision to reject their application by Arcom before ruling on the merits.

The Team wants to join “the info block”

To defend its candidacy, L’Équipe highlights its specificity: being the only free sports channel in the French audiovisual landscape. In a very competitive world, where Canal +, BeIN, DAZN and Eurosport are competing for the rights to the main competitions at high prices, the daily sports channel has managed to carve out a place for itself by focusing on competitions that have long been shunned by the paid broadcasters, such as the Biathlon and Alpine Skiing World Cup, or the matches of the French youth football team and those of the French women’s handball team.

Change the “ten”… and make the audiences take off?

Three months after the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, L’Équipe is also advancing its status as an independent media group. While NRJ 12 could close its doors, most of the existing channels now belong to either TF 1, France Télévisions, M 6, Canal + or BFMTV. In this regard, the two newcomers, OFTV and Réels TV, will bring a little pluralism since they are respectively supported by “Ouest France” and by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky (Elle, Télé 7 jours, Loopsider, Louie Media…), also owner of the number two French publishing company, Editis.

By changing ten, the Team hopes to boost its audiences ― it recorded a 1.2% market share over the entire month of last October ― but also its advertising revenues, modest compared to its colleagues in TNT. A major argument since the advertising weight of those promoted is one of the criteria on which Arcom must rely to change its numbering.

This is why the option of moving the two parliamentary branches, LCP and Public Senate, from thirteenth to eighth place, is being pushed by many players in the sector. Devoid of advertising, and undeniably endowed with a public service mission, the two channels represent no economic threat to the sector.

L’Équipe’s approach adds to the lively negotiations underway in the small world of television where everyone is eyeing the numbers of the two ousted people who will stop broadcasting on Friday February 28, 2025. Arcom has promised to clarify here is his strategy for filling the holes in the numbering.