Paris (AFP)
It is "natural" and "understandable" that the actors of the French audiovisual landscape "put themselves in working order" to "develop their capacity for investment and a kind of cultural sovereignty", said Roch-Olivier Maistre, the president on Tuesday. of the CSA, which must give its opinion on the proposed merger between TF1 and M6 in early 2022.
Seized at the beginning of the summer, the Superior council of audio-visual must begin this week the hearings of the two diffusers and of all the actors of the market (producers, competitors, operators, societies of authors), has- he added on the occasion of the 15th Udecam Meetings, the meeting place for French advertisers.
Evolution of uses with less and less linear consumption patterns, media with a multiplication of screens per household, and Gafa's appetite for the advertising and content market: the Covid-19 crisis "played a role in "amplifier" of basic trends in the audiovisual sector, recalled Mr. Maistre.
"The regulator is not there to preserve and preserve the status quo, but to anticipate and to support the transformations at work in the media landscape", he insisted, especially since in recent years, "the consolidation announcements have multiplied, "particularly in the United States.
"We will issue an opinion (on the TF1 / M6 merger project) somewhere at the beginning of next year. We will then have to decide on the approval of the change of capital control of the M6 channel, then we will have to regulate the renewal of the authorizations of TF1 and M6 which expire in spring 2023 ", detailed the regulator.
"I felt a form of enthusiasm, a desire to do well," responded the CEO of the TF1 group Gilles Pélisson, questioned just after on the same stage.
TF1 and M6 hope to finalize their project at the end of 2022.
The merger between TF1 and M6 / RTL, now owned by the German group Bertelsmann via RTL Group, must also obtain the consent of the Competition Authority, which must analyze the advisability of creating a player representing the three quarters of the French advertising market on free television.
The competition policeman began a market test at the start of the school year, and will deliver its opinion by summer 2022, with the possibility of requiring a certain number of corrective measures (for example separate advertising agencies).
"This merger does not worry me. (...) We need strong groups in the private audiovisual sector which provide free quality programs", declared the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot, interviewed at the end of August on France Info .
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