A few days after the announcement of the end of the merger project between TF1 and M6, the two regulators, Arcom (ex CSA) for audiovisual and Arcep, for telecoms made public the opinions they had drafted to inform the decision of the competition authority.
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The analyzes of the two regulators have very different tones.
If Arcom is considering the operation in view of the profound changes in the sector with the appearance of American digital platforms, Arcep is clear.
For her, the television market remains largely dominant in uses and any consolidation would have a negative impact on relations between broadcasters (TF1 and M6) and telecom operators who distribute the channels and associated services (My TF1 and M6 Play ).
In its conclusions, Arcom seems to adhere to the analysis developed by TF1 and M6 “
The project to create a new entity bringing together the activities of the TF1 and Métropole Télévision (M6) groups is unprecedented in several respects.
First of all, it is part of the context of profound industrial and structural changes.
Initiated with the technological changes initiated by the advent of the Internet, these changes are amplified by the more recent arrival of new world-class digital players (in particular on-demand media services and video sharing platforms). in audiovisual markets.
The entire value chain, from the markets upstream of acquisition, to the distribution and broadcasting of the signal, is impacted by it
”
.
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The audiovisual policeman concedes that
“these changes challenge historical players to change their
editorial model, and, in this respect, to increase their investments.
These investments are necessary whereas, faced with the fall in the duration of individual listening (DEI) and the aging of viewers and listeners, advertising resources are stagnating
.
“Television remains a powerful medium today”
But for all that, Arcom is not totally favorable to the merger in the current state of the market.
First of all from a competitive point of view, he writes
"while television today remains a powerful medium, which provides incomparable coverage of the population, the operation would create a group occupying an exceptional position vis-à-vis channels competitors, with fragmented audiences, who are struggling to ensure their economic balance and to find their model in the context of the digital challenge they are also experiencing
".
Above all, it underlines the effects on the advertising market and that of the acquisition of audiovisual rights.
"
The proposed takeover of M6 by Bouygues is indeed likely to produce significant effects, although of varying magnitude, on the advertising, publishing and distribution markets, as well as on the acquisition of programs on which, despite the emergence of new competitive pressures, the parties continue today to play a central role.
»
For its part, Arcep bothers with fewer convolutions and is more direct in its conclusions.
“For all the reasons mentioned above, the operation, if authorized, is likely to pose risks to the Internet access supply market, to the detriment of users.
The Autorité therefore considers it necessary that it be accompanied by a certain number of commitments on the part of the parties.