John de Mol (67) sees the extremely lucrative takeover of his media company Talpa Network by the much larger RTL Nederland faltering now that another media giant, DPG Media, is protesting.
Although Talpa is struggling with a huge image problem, RTL hopes to receive permission from watchdog ACM after the summer to take over John de Mol’s media company. However, not everyone is happy about this, because it creates a huge monopolist in the field of commercial TV. Almost all commercial radio then goes to RTL.
‘Way too big’
Such a mega takeover will have serious consequences for almost all parties involved. For example, celebrities no longer have a leg to stand on during contract negotiations, all commercial TV journalism comes into the same hands and TV advertisers fear much higher prices. But media giant DPG Media is not happy either.
DPG Media, the company behind news media such as the AD and the commercial radio market leader Qmusic, thinks the power of a combined RTL and Talpa is really too great. “We have one radio station, Qmusic, Talpa has four. If RTL and Talpa merge, Qmusic will be pushed aside,” DPG CEO Erik Roddenhof said in a statement Financial Newspaper†
Monopolist
Erik Roddenhof fears that Qmusic will be ‘marginalized’ if RTL becomes so dominant as a provider on the advertiser market. “Advertisers like to buy in bulk and that is why the purchase of advertising space on radio and television is often linked,” a spokesperson added to the AD.
For that reason, he lodged an objection with the ACM. He also has concerns about the TV market. “We have the ambition to be active in the TV market. But if RTL merges with Talpa, there will be no room for other commercial TV channels in the Netherlands. It is never good to give the market to a monopolist,” Erik said in the FD.
Peter enthusiastic
A month ago, Peter van der Vorst spoke very enthusiastically about a takeover of Talpa. And that while four months ago in Beau van Erven Dorens’ talk show he could not even answer the question whether he still trusts Talpa boss John de Mol after the abuse scandal surrounding The Voice.
The same John de Mol also ensured that Peter became a multimillionaire in 2015 by selling his production company Vorst Media. In that year, John paid 9.4 million euros for the purchase of three different interests; most of it went to Peter. “That John de Mol calls himself: that’s fantastic,” said Peter at the time.
overrule
If Talpa is taken over by RTL Nederland, John will soon have a significant minority stake in the media company. According to Angela de Jong, Peter will suffer a lot from this.
Angela: “Believe me, some people still wake up screaming from ‘doing business’ with De Mol and his people. Make no mistake about it: he determines where and when his programs are shown and no one else. Not even the program director of RTL.”