Mthreatened with engulfment by other contenders for “available brain time” such as social networks, video games or even streaming platforms, saved from a disappearance announced as inevitable by the confinement of 2020 and its aftershocks, again doomed to the most pessimistic diagnoses because its robustness has been undermined, does television still have a future?
In 2022, at the same time, TF1 and M6 were trying to persuade the regulatory authorities that their survival depended on the merger they were calling for. The argument did not find the expected echo, and for good reason: focused on optimizing profitability, they openly promised their shareholders a “significant value creation”, a “attractive pay” and an “dividend policy” generous. While the times were not really dark, the future in which they projected was therefore golden.
At the start of 2023, this horizon has not fundamentally changed. The scenario of a fatal attrition due to the “nasty” global platforms fizzled out, to the point that, in mid-February, TF1 and M6 followed one another before the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom, ex-CSA) to claim authorization to broadcast on DTT for the next ten years. He even found a Xavier Niel for, after having failed to join forces with M6 and then to buy it out, to say that he was ready to sacrifice 600 million euros over four years (while waiting to embark on the paths of profitability) to launch Six, a chain he would have created from scratch. One can hardly suspect the founder of Iliad-Free, individual shareholder of the World, and its managing director, Maxime Lombardini, former TF1 manager of this project, for having devised such an elaborate plan with the aim of deliberately losing money.
Diminished but unmatched power
Among the reasons for their confidence: the promising prospects of the advertising market. “The number of advertisers on television has never been so high, remarks Mr. Lombardini. Even those who were previously pure players, in the forefront of which we find the GAFA, are coming to television. » No other media is able to attract so many people at the same time, the power of linear television, even diminished, remains unmatched. As for the increasing control of the data associated with this audience (age, socio-professional profile, gender, etc.), it gives them strong arguments to sell spots at higher costs than in the past.
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