PARIS (Reuters) – The Bouygues group announced on Friday the abandonment of the plan to merge TF1 and M6 after failing to overcome the reluctance of the Competition Authority.
“Following discussions with the Autorité and despite the additional remedies proposed, it appears that only structural remedies concerning at least the sale of the TF1 channel or the M6 channel would be such as to allow the authorization of the operation The parties therefore concluded that the project no longer presented any industrial logic,” said the parent company of TF1 in a press release.
“Consequently, in agreement with the other parties, Bouygues has decided to end the review process of the transaction before the French Competition Authority.”
At the end of July, the body expressed its concerns about this project, fearing its impact on the acquisition of broadcasting rights for audiovisual content, the publishing and marketing of television channels as well as the distribution of television services and The advertisement.
In a press release published after Bouygues’ announcement, the Competition Authority said that it took note of this decision and recalled that “the operation could have created major competitive risks, particularly in the markets for television advertising and the distribution of television service”.
“The market power of the TF1 and M6 groups combined, which are today the two closest competitors on the television advertising market, gives rise to a strong risk of a rise in the price of advertising space sold by the parties to the detriment of advertisers and consumers”, said Benoît Coeuré, the president of the Authority, in this press release.
The operation provided for the takeover of the new entity by Bouygues with a 30% stake, while the German group RTL, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann, would retain 16% of this new entity.
(Written by Nicolas Delame, edited by Sophie Louet and Tangi Salaün)
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