The two groups believe that the project no longer has any industrial logic with regard to the remedies requested by the Competition Authority.
The merger between TF1 and M6 will not take place. In a joint press release, Bouygues, RTL Group, TF1 and the M6 group announced this Friday that they would end their project. “This decision comes after the hearing of the parties by the College of the Competition Authority, on September 5 and 6, to defend the interest and the necessity of the operation“, explain the two groups. “Following the 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“, they continue.
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Under these conditions, the two groups considered that the project no longer had any industrial logic. “In agreement with the other parties, Bouygues has decided to end the process of examining the transaction before the Competition Authority. The parties deplore that the Competition Authority did not take into account the scale and speed of changes in the French audiovisual sector. They remain convinced that the merger of the TF1 and M6 groups would have been an appropriate response to the challenges arising from the accelerated competition with international platforms.“, concludes the press release.
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