French commercial broadcaster M6’s stock market price jumped by 11.85 per cent to €12.84 this week, as buyout rumours were rekindled by a story in daily Le Parisien. The group, majority owned by the German RTL Group, is said to have renewed talks with competitor TF1 for a potential merger.

Although both groups had abandoned such a project in 2022, following a negative ruling of the Competition Authority, the newspaper reported that confidential meetings were taking place between the pair with a view to the former buying the latter. As part of these discussions, the M6 share price has been set at €20, the equivalent to a valuation of €2.5 billion, according to the newspaper.

The motivations remain unchanged: compared to TF1 decreasing advertising revenues and financial performance, M6’s high profitability attracts attention, while anticipating strong viewership for the FIFA World Cup for which it holds TV rights.

This time, the process would however differ from the previous plan as M6 group would be divided between TF1 and new entrant shipping conglomerate CMA CGM, the mother company of CMA Media (RMC BFM) which already owns a 10.27 per cent minority share in M6.

Such a breakdown “would most likely facilitate the approval of the Competition Authority,” according to an analyst.

For several months, M6 and CMA CGM have been campaigning for a reform of the media rules so as to made possible the consolidation of national players. Both groups are lobbying for a reduction of the five-year period during which it is forbidden to resell a DTT channel.

In any eventuality, an M6 group buyout could not take place before May 2028, with regulatory body Arcom having reallocated its DTT frequency to the channel in 2023.

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Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Business, M&A

Tags: arcom, france, m6, TF1