Surprising change of boss in Unterföhring: The television company ProSiebenSat1 appoints the former RTL boss Bert Habets as chairman of the board.

The 51-year-old Dutchman has been on the supervisory board of the M-Dax group since May.

Habets will take over the post from November 1 from Rainer Beaujean, who has resigned by mutual agreement with the supervisory board, according to ProSiebenSat1.

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Beaujean's contract was only extended until mid-2027 in December 2021.

The television group emphasized that the major shareholder MediaForEurope (MFE), controlled by the family of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, had no influence on the personnel.

MFE is seen as an opponent of Beaujean and felt betrayed when he was appointed in March 2020.

Conversely, Beaujean is said to have worked heavily against MFE.

Whether Habets treats the Italians differently than his predecessor is an open question.

However, he is a seasoned media professional, while former CFO Beaujean is more of a numbers man.

Habets worked at competitor RTL from 2009 to 2019, where he managed business in the Netherlands, among other things, and from 2017 the entire group.

In the Netherlands, he built, among other things, the streaming platform Videoland, which is now number two in the Netherlands behind Netflix.

Subscription model or advertising financing?

Habets is considered an early advocate of subscription models in the streaming market.

This could herald a change in strategy at ProSiebenSat1.

Beaujean recently pursued a predominantly advertising-financed business model with the streaming service Joyn.

Observers consider it unlikely that Habets will leave it at that.

ProSiebenSat1 wants to get serious about the streaming business.

For example, the M-Dax group wants to completely take over the Joyn streaming platform.

So far, the US media group and joint venture partner Warner Bros. Discovery still owns 50 percent of the shares in Joyn.

ProSiebenSat1 also stopped its own streaming apps at the beginning of the year and is therefore relying entirely on Joyn.

RTL wants to merge with ProSiebenSat1 in the long term

The change of boss should also fuel speculation about a merger between the Bavarian television company and its largest German competitor, RTL.

Thomas Rabe, head of the RTL parent company Bertelsmann as well as the RTL Group and the German national company, considers a consolidation of the television market to be unavoidable in order to survive against large US corporations such as Netflix, Disney or Amazon.

Rabe has repeatedly indicated in the past that he wants to merge RTL with ProSiebenSat1 in the long term.

The previous ProSiebenSat.1 boss Beaujean was a self-confessed opponent of this idea.

"The ad agencies would complain, the customers would complain, it's a nightmare," Beaujean told the Financial Times in May.

Habets may see things differently.

Because not everyone at ProSiebenSat1 would reject the merger plans with RTL in principle, according to the industry.

In Unterföhring they want to prevent a takeover by MFE under all circumstances.

However, the managers of both companies know that a merger would probably be difficult to sell to the German cartel authorities.

Lack of tailwind from France

All the more annoying for RTL was the failure of a planned merger of the private channels TF1 and M6 in France, which was actually supposed to bring tailwind for consolidation in Germany.

Due to the failure, more concrete merger plans on the part of RTL with ProSiebenSat1 will probably take a few years, according to the industry.

RTL is M6's largest shareholder with 48.3 percent and wanted to create a "national media champion" with TF1's main shareholder, the French conglomerate Bouygues.

However, the French competition authorities had feared dominance on the advertising market.

In fact, RTL or Bouygues would have had to sell one of the two channels, which is why both parties buried the project in mid-September.

Berlusconi interested in M6

RTL then put its M6 stake up for sale - also against the background that the broadcaster had to apply for the extension of its broadcasting license in the spring and that the main shareholder was then not allowed to change for five years under French law.

Among others, the former Italian Prime Minister and media czar Silvio Berlusconi - via MFE, which is also involved in ProSiebenSat1 - as well as the Czech investor Daniel Křetínský are said to have expressed interest.

The turnaround followed on Monday evening.

RTL announced that it would keep M6, although "several financially attractive offers" had been received.

The reason for this is that the "legal risks and uncertainties" are too high, according to a statement.

According to observers, among other things, the timetable for the extension of the M6 ​​broadcasting license was too tight and, as in the case of the failed merger with TF1, it was unclear how quickly and under what conditions the competition regulator would approve the sale.

Without a change in the law, France's second largest private broadcaster will remain in the hands of the Germans for at least another five years.

However, they are sticking to the "Champions" strategy, emphasizes RTL.

M6 will "play a key role in the further consolidation of the French TV industry".