Molotov TV Loses battle to broadcast TF1

TF1 has denied OTT operator Molotov’s claim to have agreed the distribution of the commercial broadcaster’s free channels in its premium pay-TV tier following Molotov’s January 7 legal defeat in its battle to carry on making the services available free of charge to its users.

The verdict of the January 7th battle between TF1 and Molotov TV has been in TF1’s favour. It follows Molotov’s recent December 2021 failure against M6 in another legal battle.

Although claiming to have agreed on the distribution of the main French channels on the Molotov TV iptv network, the Paris Courts of Justice have denied them the right to do so.

As it had been broadcasting the TF1 Group’s channels since July 2019 without authorization. Molotov was ordered to pay €8.5 million in fines. Further, it has been ordered to stop the relay of TF1 programmes in their unencrypted form.

With M6, Molotov appears to have added the channel to its pay-tv list.

TF1’s other channels Ushuaia TV, Histoire TV, and TV Breizh have been put into ‘pending’ following the decision of the courts.

-information from Digital TV Europe