France Télévisions sentenced to pay more than 650,000 euros to Patrick Sébastien – The host claims… – Le Blog de Jean-Marc Morandini

According to Capital, the Paris Commercial Court ordered France Télévisions to pay 652,251 euros to Patrick Sébastien’s company for “sudden termination of commercial relations”. Justice was considering the dismissal of the former public service host after 24 years in 2019 – his last broadcast dated back to May 2019. He was claiming 26 million euros. Our colleagues specify that Patrick Sébastien accused the public group of “attacking image, bad faith in negotiations, abuse of economic dependence, threat of severance of commercial relations, abusive severance of these relations, submission to impose a reduction in the number of programs produced and their unit cost.” Patrick Sébastien criticizes the management of France Télévisions for having “sought to drastically reduce the cost and number of broadcasts”. He thus demanded reimbursement of the “undue savings made on the drop in orders for broadcasts, without any objective consideration”.Before the Commercial Court , France Télévisions indicated that the audience for Patrick Sébastien’s programs was in “continuous decline” and that it had “fallen below the average audience ne de France 2 from 2017”. “The fall in the number of programs and their unit cost is not due to abuse, but to good management of public funds. Patrick Sébastien’s company was perfectly informed of the channel’s audience constraints, and well aware of the budgetary restrictions affecting the public service”, added the group. The judges rejected almost all of Patrick Sébastien’s arguments. “However, they admitted that “Patrick Sébastien’s notoriety and good audience scores were maintained over time until the last 2018-19 season”, explain our colleagues. France Télévisions plans to appeal the decision, according to Capital.