Bouygues, RTL Group, Groupe TF1 and Groupe M6 have decided to abandon their plan to merge the broadcasting groups, the Bertelsmann subsidiary RTL announced on Friday evening. The French competition authorities had expressed serious concerns about the planned merger of the French broadcasting groups M6 and TF1. At the beginning of September, TF1 and M6 had the opportunity to put forward their arguments for the planned merger in front of the competition authority’s college.
RTL has now stated that after the discussions with the authority and despite the proposed additional remedies, it appears that only structural remedies involving at least the sale of TV channel TF1 or TV channel M6 would have been sufficient to get the merger greenlit . According to the further information, the parties have therefore come to the conclusion that the planned merger no longer has any strategic reasons.
The proposed merger of Groupe TF1 and Groupe M6 should create a new French media group with a highly diversified portfolio across TV, radio, content production and technology.
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