The Bouygues Group and the RTL Group have announced that they are dropping plans to merge French terrestrial TV channels TF1 and M6. Bouygues owns TF1 and RTL owns M6.
The potential deal was originally reported in details in the June/July 2022 Issue of VideoAge. Officially, the merger was to “provide a French response to the challenges from global platforms.” Now, in a statement released today “the parties regret that the Competition Authority did not take into account the speed and extent of the changes sweeping through the French broadcasting sector.”
At the time of the merger’s announcement, rumors were already circulating that the French Competition Authority would have had serious concerns. Now that the concerns have become apparent, the two groups have concluded that the proposed merger has no longer any strategic rationale within the drastic requirements set forth by the Authority.
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