TF1 and M6 had declared that the conditions of the operation set by the Autorité de la concurrence were untenable
These were the two values to follow at the opening of the Sotck exchange this Monday morning. In the first moments of the exchanges, the TF1 title fell by 2.49% and that of the M6 channel by nearly 6%. The two values of the SBF 120 showed the largest declines in the index this morning. This correction follows the announcement last Friday of the abandonment of the merger project between the two television groups.
In a joint press release, TF1 and M6 declared that the conditions of the operation set by the Competition Authority proved to be untenable. ” 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 “, indicate the representatives of the two chains in their press release. The option of sacrificing the TF1 or M6 channel on the altar of the merger between the two groups was immediately rejected.
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Guest this morning on the antenna of BFM Businessthe President of the Competition Authority, Benoit Coeure, explained this decision. The College of the Authority “concluded that the transaction was not possible as it stood because it would have created an ultra-dominant player in TV advertising“, he related, with the capture of“more than 70%” of total advertising revenue. The new TF1-M6 entity “ would also have had very strong market power over distribution by Internet access providers and could not only impose but increase its prices to the detriment of viewers“, according to Benoît Coeuré.
Regarding the argument of increasingly aggressive competition from American platforms such as Netflix, advanced by the defenders of the mergerthe President of the Competition Authority put it into perspective.“Platforms go to advertisements that will be targeted because they know everything about you (…) and they are aimed at people who do not watch the same program at the same time”, he explained. However, television, according to him, constitutesa mass media” who “can reach several million people at the same time“. “To launch a product, you launch it on TV“, he affirmed, in the light of the consultations of the many actors of the sector which took place these last months.