Please avoid any derogatory remarks on this beautiful montage – Marie Etchegoyen / HENRI COLLOT / SIPA / Wlad Simitch
- TF1 and M6 announced a merger project on Monday evening.
- If this merger could have serious consequences on the advertising market and TV rights, what impact will it have on viewers?
- “There will be no consequences before the end of 2022,” says Philippe Bailly, president of the NPA Conseil cabinet, specializing in the audiovisual economy.
A pole test to decide the winner of the Best Pastry Chef ? A special “black box” week for candidates from Dance with the stars ? Is this what the TV shows will look like in a few months? After the announcement of the merger between TF1 and M6 on Monday, the hypotheses more inventive than the others are going well.
This news will shake up the audiovisual landscape since the proceeds of the marriage between TF1 and M6 should represent between 65% and 75% of the advertising market. This is what is part of the internal media grub. The public is more concerned about the repercussions of this merger on the small screen.
“For the viewer, as for all professionals, there will be no consequences before the end of 2022, given the control mechanisms by the CSA and by the competition authorities”, underlines Philippe Bailly, President of the NPA Conseil cabinet, specialized in the audiovisual economy. And going through all these stages is not easy since it will be necessary to convince the audiovisual players that this project will not act like a steamroller on competing channels.
The sight for three chains
If the project obtains the approval of the CSA and the Competition Authority, choices will have to be made. The law allows seven broadcasting authorizations to be granted over the air waves to a single television group. The problem is that between them, TF1 and M6 have ten. According to Philippe Bailly, the new media juggernaut should give up the paying DTT license of Paris Première, “which will not prevent the channel from continuing in the Bouygues Telecom, Canal +, Free, Orange or SFR packages”, specifies- he does.
TF1 Séries Films, formerly called HD1 when it was launched in 2012 with the promise of a wide range of fiction, could also see its signal cut on the hertzian. “It is more complicated today to build a strong identity, given the multiplication of the offer of series and films in replay, SVoD, AvoD”, justifies the president of the cabinet NPA Conseil.
Finally, the future of W9 and TFX seems compromised. Of Marseillais at The Villa of Broken Hearts Passing by 10 Perfect Couples and The Princes and Princesses of love, the two channels accumulate reality TV programs and offer relatively close programming. “They could be balanced as a third“ sacrificed ”,” notes Philippe Bailly.
Soon the launch of TF1Radio?
What if you dreamed of seeing Stéphane Plaza animating The Voice on M6 or Nikos sell apartments on TF1, it will not be for now. There is no doubt that the two channels have every interest in keeping their brand specificities to capture two different audiences. On the other hand, the new sisters will no longer have to fight over the programming and could therefore avoid broadcasting, for example, two different American series on the same evening.
Where the change might be most visible would be (ironically) on the radio. The M6 group has three stations (RTL, RTL2 and Fun Radio) unlike its current competitor which has none. At a time when we hear more and more voices from television hosts on the airwaves, TF1 would have every interest in taking advantage of the merger to make the stars of its channels new radio muses.