(Clarifications)
PARIS, July 26 (Reuters) – TF1 and M6 will respond within three weeks to the Competition Authority, whose investigation services considered in a report that the proposed merger between the two channels raised “problems of significant competition,” the two groups announced on Tuesday.
Bouygues, which controls France’s leading private television channel, said in a statement that the parties intended to maintain their project as presented and that the hearings before the college of the Authority were scheduled for September 5 and 6. .
“In this report, which does not prejudge the final decision of the college of the Authority, the investigation services consider that the operation raises significant competition problems (in particular on the advertising market)”, wrote Bouygues.
“The nature and extent of the remedies required in the investigation report would make the project irrelevant to the parties who, in this case, would abandon it,” added the group.
An identical press release was published by M6.
According to the proposed merger between TF and M6, Bouygues would take control of the new entity with a 30% stake, while the German group RTL, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann, would retain 16% of this new entity.
Last March, the Authority announced that the merger between the two private chains was to be the subject of a “thorough examination”, saying that it planned to make its decision on the project in the fall of 2022.
At the heart of the regulator’s concerns, the impact of the operation on the acquisition of rights to broadcast audiovisual content, the publishing and marketing of television channels as well as the distribution of television services and advertising. (Written by Nicolas Delame and Jean Terzian)