Auditioned by the Senate on February 18, Xavier Niel expressed his great concern vis-à-vis the takeover of M6 by TF1. According to him, this merger could create a great upheaval in the world of advertising and cinema. Martin Bouygues, first shareholder of TF1, did not fail to be ironic about this statement by recalling that Iliad is doing very well financially.
May 2021: TF1 buys M6 for the modest sum of 641 million euros. A substantial sum which has necessarily aroused the curiosity of the Competition Authority and Arcom, which must decide on the legitimacy of this merger by the end of the year. To do this, the Senate is hearing several market players to obtain their opinion on the matter. Among them is Xavier Niel.
The businessman, who had also confessed his interest in buying the French channel himself, therefore appeared before the senators this Friday, February 18. Visibly, he didn’t come to mince his words. After recalling that by combining their strengths, the two groups reach 10 million peoplethe CEO of Illiad expressed his concern. “In terms of advertising, you will create a monster that will dominate the market”did he declare.
Xavier Niel worries about the TF1-M6 merger
But it’s not just the potential advertising monopoly of the future group that gives Xavier Niel a cold sweat. Also founder of the production company Mediawan – which recently positioned itself to buy OCS, by the way – the billionaire also plans a huge impact on the film industry. “When you produce a film like Bac Nord [film produit par Mediawan, NDLR]there are several places where you collect recipes“, he explains.
“You go to TF1 and M6 to ask how much they would be willing to pay to finance this. From this moment when you have the merger, you no longer have this open market and it is 4000 producers who will suffer”, he argues. Xavier Niel believes that faced with such decision-making power, production companies will have no choice but to comply with the wishes of the TF1-M6 group, who will certainly not hesitate to lower the prices. A statement that did not go unnoticed by Martin Bouygues.
Meanwhile, Martin Bouygues ironically
Indeed, barely a few minutes after the hearing of Xavier Niel, the first shareholder of TF1 also appeared before the senators. Much more moderate, the latter began by recalling that “Television has a much less important place today than in the past”thus considering that the strike force so worrying for Xavier Niel would actually be much less.
On the same subject: Targeted advertising — Bouygues Telecom signs an agreement with TF1, M6 and France Télévisions
Thereby, the increase in tariffs would ultimately only be a myth. While allowing himself to be ironic about the situation of the businessman. “Iliad’s margin is around 1.8 billion, so I think he’s not quite in danger yet, he can be reassured” he underlined, after recalling thatIliad has invested four million euros in TF1 in 2021.
According to Martin Bouygues, Xavier Niel therefore only “bring everything back to its money”,whereas a refusal of this merger would be, according to its defenders, harmful for the French audiovisual sector. This is particularly the opinion of Nicolas De Tavernost, chairman of the management board of M6, who appeared on January 28 before the Senate. “Today, with the rules that are imposed on us, with the agreements that are under the responsibility of the CSA, I think that there is no risk in this concentrated business”he pleaded.
