Referring to hearings “Not always up to the task”, the encrypted channel could in particular cede the broadcasting of the ceremonies to France Télévisions, which confirmed to be in discussion with Pierre Lescure and Thierry Frémaux.
The common road ends. The Canal + group will not broadcast the ceremonies of the Cannes festival in 2022, declared Gérald-Brice Viret, director of antennas and programs of the Canal + group in an interview published on Saturday in Sunday Newspaper . Either the end of a historic partnership between the encrypted channel and the festival, 28 years long, which is already whetting the appetite for competition.
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“Between Cannes and Canal +, it’s a long love story. We faced an escalation from the public service, which offered more money than us“Said Gérald-Brice Viret, confirming information released on Friday by the newspaper Point . According to the boss of the Canal + antennas, France Télévisions, associated with the digital media Brut, would broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies of the Cannes festival, which will be held from May 17 to 28, 2022.
France Television on the lookout
Asked by AFP, France Televisions confirmed “have made a proposal with Brut at the Cannes Film Festival to be their media partner“. However, “No decision has yet been made” and discussions continue “Serenely” with Pierre Lescure and Thierry Frémaux, respectively president and general delegate of the Cannes festival, specifies the public audiovisual group, which claims to have “learned with surprise by the press of the decision of Canal +“. On the Canal + side, “we didn’t want to participate in this escalation, so we withdrew from the tender», Explained Gérald-Brice Viret, assuring that despite the prestige of the Cannes competition, “The audience is not always up to par with around 600,000 viewers per gala evening”.
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“Cannes is a big machine, we are talking about several million euros. We are not at war, we wish them good luck. We remain on excellent terms with the town hall, especially through the Canneseries festival“, he added. The director of programs at Canal +, however, guaranteed that the encrypted channel would continue to cover the festival with “More resources” thanks to the savings thus achieved. “In addition to the work of our journalists on site, the Circle and its columnists, we are planning a daily access prime time program”, he detailed.
Some 875,000 viewers watched the closing ceremony of 74e Cannes Film Festival, broadcast unencrypted on Canal +, last July, achieving an audience share of 5.5%. Either a stable level compared to the last edition before the pandemic, in May 2019, but far from the historical record of 2013, when the closing ceremony of the 66e edition of the festival had gathered 2.2 million viewers.
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Canal + breaks with the Cannes Film Festival