Chronic. Should I authorize TF1 and M6 to get married? This is the question that shakes the audiovisual and advertising sectors. It belongs to the authority of competition, which examines the file, to decide it. But, behind this fusion, there is the match between sovereignty and competition.
Two logic compete: for pro-marriage – including the French executive – it is vital to create French or even European national champions, to withstand foreign, American or Chinese giants, particularly in digital. Google and Facebook for advertising, Netflix or Amazon side movies and series … For opponents, the most important is to ensure loyal competition, which allows emulation between small and large companies, wherever they come: It would be best for consumers but also for our businesses, able to earn market share or public procurement abroad.
The logic of sovereignty has gained ground in Europe in recent years. A turning point was refused by the European Commission of Fusion between the German and French Giants of the Railway, Siemens and Alstom, in 2019. At the time, Bruno the mayor had criticized a “political error” and a “gift made to China “. In the wake, the Minister of the Economy had published, with his German counterpart Peter Altmayer, a “manifest” for an “industrial policy”. A concept historically rather associated with France and watched with mistrust in Germany as a form of statism, or even socialism …
A position of “annuity”
This inflection is incarnated in particular in “important projects of common European interest” that allow Member States to support business innovations in semiconductors, electric batteries, data hosting in the cloud … in the same spirit, French Thierry Breton, European Industry Commissioner and Fervent Defender of an Industrial Policy, has rather imposed his views in the preliminary debates with his counterpart on the Competition Margrethe Vestacier on the Platforms Regulations. Digital digital markets Act, now forbidden together.
In the case of TF1 and M6, the pro-fusion argument is known: the two groups must weigh on the rights market, where the Disney, Netflix or Amazon mastodontes confiscept the most beautiful works and talents. More broadly, is the regulated universe of radio and linear television not promised to explode, in favor of an open battle between content applications, on TVs and connected objects, mainly in replay? The French channels would then give a frontal combat with the giants of the targeted online advertising. TF1 and M6 require the competition authority to expand its “relevant market” analysis to mix television advertising (of which they control 70%) and on line. For FNAC-Darty fusion, the authority had included online sales.
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