A merger between French broadcasters TF1 and M6 could be back on after competition regulators within the European Commission indicated they could take a softer approach to corporate consolidation.
In an interview with the Financial Times Bertelsmann chief executive Thomas Rabe said he hoped to revisit plans to combine the Bertelsmann-owned M6 and larger rival TF1.
“It would create a true French TV and streaming champion, able to compete with the US platforms,” he said. In a statement, Bouygues said it shared Rabe’s view that a merger had “merit”, when and regulatory conditions were favourable.
Rabe said he been encouraged by what he sees as a change of stance by Brussels after years of “excessively stringent” competition rules.
“We’ve been the victims of these rules more than once . . . we have tried to create European champions in media and we were blocked by the regulators — I believe for no good reason,” he said. “Now the European Commission talks about the necessity to reform and promote European champions. Fantastic. Let’s do it.”
In 2022, Bertelsmann and Bouygues argued that regulators should expand their definition of the TV and advertising markets, as they sought approval for the merger of the two businesses.
The French competition authority acknowledged the threat by international streamers, but said that television itself was still a powerful medium.
The merger plans collapsed and M6 was put up for sale before Bertlesman’s RTL Group announced it intended to keep its controlling stake in Groupe M6.
