MR
That’d be a big change in Belgium if that happened. RTL in some form has always been in the name of the commercial channels in Wallonia/Brussels since RTL TVI launched as a channel dedicated to Belgium in 1987 (with RTL TV being available before that as a channel shared with Luxembourg and Lorraine in France which later became RTL9).
The advertising market in French-speaking Belgium has become more squeezed in recent years, with TF1 and now C8 being allowed to launch Belgian advertising opt-outs.
Plus M6 can be received in the country, although there isn't a Belgian opt. What I'll presume will happen is once RTL is sold, M6 will launch a Belgian opt.
Although the share is low in Belgium for the French based channels, there is a sizable minority who prefer to watch those channels instead of the RTBF and RTL offerings in Wallonia, this despite the Belgian channels getting first run of French commissioned shows to ensure viewers watch locally instead of via TF1, France 2 etc.
That would make sense re renaming to M6. But M6 is actually not widely available in Belgium as it stands currently.
As RTL is (currently) part of the same group and has the rights for most of its programming, they block M6 and its sister channels from being carried on Belgian cable/IPTV, even though it’s an overspill FTA signal that would otherwise have historically been received at the border terrestrially, then shared between the télédistribution networks via microwave and carried (as happened with France 2, France 3 and also TF1 in the days before their Belgian advertising opt-out replaced the off-air feed). Ironically, this method of receiving at the border then sharing with the other cable networks is exactly how RTL-TVI and later on Club RTL started out, being broadcast from Luxembourg with the UHF feed picked up by a cable network in Southern Wallonia for distribution. I’m not sure of the Belgian legal technicalities but I think RTL’s blocking/lobbying of the cable networks, so they can’t/don’t do the same with M6, has been a little controversial.
M6 can be received terrestrially of course in areas bordering France, or via satellite, but the vast majority of Belgium gets TV via cable (Voo/Orange), or the newer IPTV services of (Proximus etc.). A lot of municipalities apparently have pretty restrictive planning rules on satellite dishes!
French TV
If this will happen then I presume that the RTL channels in Belgium will no longer use the RTL moniker
That’d be a big change in Belgium if that happened. RTL in some form has always been in the name of the commercial channels in Wallonia/Brussels since RTL TVI launched as a channel dedicated to Belgium in 1987 (with RTL TV being available before that as a channel shared with Luxembourg and Lorraine in France which later became RTL9).
The advertising market in French-speaking Belgium has become more squeezed in recent years, with TF1 and now C8 being allowed to launch Belgian advertising opt-outs.
Plus M6 can be received in the country, although there isn't a Belgian opt. What I'll presume will happen is once RTL is sold, M6 will launch a Belgian opt.
Although the share is low in Belgium for the French based channels, there is a sizable minority who prefer to watch those channels instead of the RTBF and RTL offerings in Wallonia, this despite the Belgian channels getting first run of French commissioned shows to ensure viewers watch locally instead of via TF1, France 2 etc.
That would make sense re renaming to M6. But M6 is actually not widely available in Belgium as it stands currently.
As RTL is (currently) part of the same group and has the rights for most of its programming, they block M6 and its sister channels from being carried on Belgian cable/IPTV, even though it’s an overspill FTA signal that would otherwise have historically been received at the border terrestrially, then shared between the télédistribution networks via microwave and carried (as happened with France 2, France 3 and also TF1 in the days before their Belgian advertising opt-out replaced the off-air feed). Ironically, this method of receiving at the border then sharing with the other cable networks is exactly how RTL-TVI and later on Club RTL started out, being broadcast from Luxembourg with the UHF feed picked up by a cable network in Southern Wallonia for distribution. I’m not sure of the Belgian legal technicalities but I think RTL’s blocking/lobbying of the cable networks, so they can’t/don’t do the same with M6, has been a little controversial.
M6 can be received terrestrially of course in areas bordering France, or via satellite, but the vast majority of Belgium gets TV via cable (Voo/Orange), or the newer IPTV services of (Proximus etc.). A lot of municipalities apparently have pretty restrictive planning rules on satellite dishes!