Es is a game of marked cards and a referee who not only supervises but also sets the rules: Xavier Niel, co-owner of “Le Monde” (and the magazines “Télérama” and “L’Obs”), owner of daily newspapers and of telecom provider Free, has made a very unfriendly request for M6’s frequency – knowing he won’t get it.
M6 is the most profitable TV channel in Europe, its profit margin is almost twenty percent. According to French law, no shareholder may hold more than 49 percent of the shares, the Bertelsmann subsidiary RTL has 48.26 percent. The merger with TF1, the largest private broadcaster in Europe, should create a media company that would be able to compete with the streaming platforms. The project failed due to the requirements of the Cartel Office, which would have meant the sale of one or the other station. According to the reasoning, the M6 and TF1 would have achieved a market share of 75 percent in TV advertising.
After the fiasco, Bertelsmann immediately began sales negotiations and received “sensational offers”. One of the best came from Xavier Niel, who started his career pirating decoders and the sex trade and was already in prison for pimping.
A separate project called “Six”
But the realization quickly dawned that a sale is as lengthy and complicated as a merger. And the renewal of the broadcasting license is due this spring. Bertelsmann broke off the negotiations again and announced that it did not want to sell at all. The renewal of the license is subject to the condition that there must be no change of ownership for five years.
TF1 and M6 had to present their documents to the state media regulator Arcom a few days ago. As soon as the deadline had expired, Xavier Niel confirmed what had previously been rumored: he wanted the license from M6 for his own project called “Six”. The applicants will be heard in mid-February, and the decision will be made in May. A Niel’s success would be practically equivalent to expropriating M6 after 36 years. It’s very unlikely. “M6 has good cards,” said Xavier Niel full-bodied: “But we’re going to win.”
Not even French
Niel, who has excellent relations with Macron, is already preparing the next moves. In 2025, more frequencies will need to be renewed. Then his candidacy – against weaker competitors – will be much more promising. Niel wants to catch up with his big rival Bouygues, who is also a telecom operator and owns TF1. But he also put a lot of pressure on M6 with his attack. The broadcaster has promised to invest more money in French programming. This, in turn, benefits Niel’s production company, on whose behalf he applied for the concession.
“Xavier Niel wins in any case,” commented media journalist Catherine Boullay. He still unscrupulously relies on lower instincts. His best argument is the dividends that M6 brings to shareholders. “One billion since 2008,” calculates Boullay. According to an insider, Niel is said to have argued that they are going “to a shareholder who is not even French: to a German family”.
With her as a partner, the aim in France was to establish a “national champion” against non-European competition, in line with the Bertelsmann strategy that was also being pursued elsewhere. At Bertelsmann one has to realize that this project didn’t just fail temporarily. Maybe it was two or three years too early. The M6 could also be sold before the end of the ban period.
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