“Refusing the TF1-M6 merger is part of our skills”, recalls the boss of Arcom


INTERVIEW

“This is a major issue that will occupy us a good part of the year 2022”. Arcom, the audiovisual and digital communication regulatory authority born at the very beginning of 2022 from the merger of the CSA and the Hadopi, is examining the merger project between the TV groups of TF1 (TF1, TMC, TFX , TF1 Séries Films, LCI) and M6 (M6, W9, 6ter, Gulli). Its president Roch-Olivier Maistre details at the microphone of Media Culture Friday the way in which the Arcom will handle this file in the coming months. “This is a file that is submitted to two separate authorities,” he recalls. “On the one hand, the Competition Authority which, under competition law, will have to rule on this merger . His decision will likely be known around July 2022. “

“As a sector regulator, we will first give an opinion to the Competition Authority at the end of March,” announces Roch-Olivier Maistre. But Arcom will also give its own decision on this matter in October. But can Arcom really refuse the merger between the TF1 and M6 groups? “Yes, of course, that is part of its skills,” assures its president.

Reduction in the number of channels and the future of newsrooms

“The Arcom roadmap, what the law requires of us is to ensure pluralism,” he recalls. “So, that there be a plurality of operators in the field of television, to have a plural offer for the televiewer and a choice in the offer. But also that there is also a plurality of windows of financing of the production, and not a single funding actor. Finally, there is a plurality of information. “

And this triple question of plurality is not the only one that interests Arcom in this dossier. The authority will also look at what is planned for the existing newsrooms and the number of channels kept. “There are several editors: that of TF1, that of M6, that of RTL, etc. We are going to look at how these editions will be preserved, if there is a merger,” says Roch-Olivier Maistre. “TF1 and M6 now hold ten authorizations to broadcast ten television channels. The law only allows seven. What channels will be put back on the market? Who will they be sold to? a series of criteria that we will have to look at. “



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