European broadcaster RTL Group has attracted multiple bidders for its controlling stake in French television station M6, including Vivendi, Bouygues and a consortium led by telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel, according to people familiar with the matter.
RTL, whose controlling shareholder is the privately held German media group Bertelsmann, confirmed on Friday as it reported annual results that it was weighing selling its 48 per cent stake in M6. It did not give a timeline for the process and declined to comment on the bids for the stake, which analysts said could be worth about €1.5bn.
Thomas Rabe, RTL’s chief executive, said the process was “at an early stage” and there “can be no certainty” that a deal would be completed.
M6 shares jumped more than 7 per cent in morning trading on Friday in Paris, while RTL shares were up 0.6 per cent.
If completed, the sale would reshape France’s media landscape at a time when broadcasters have been hit hard by a fall in ad revenues during the pandemic and are struggling to compete with Netflix and Amazon.
M6 is the second-biggest private broadcaster in France after Bouygues’ TF1, and it also owns the RTL radio station in France, which has a large audience.
But analysts predict that the sale process will be complex given the country’s strict rules on media ownership and antitrust concerns raised by the various bidders. Regulators would scrutinise any bid from Vivendi because it already owns France’s biggest pay-TV player Canal Plus, as well as from Bouygues since it owns the market leader TF1.
That could leave an opening for Niel’s group, which would face fewer competition concerns. Niel has teamed up with banker Matthieu Pigasse and media executive Pierre-Antoine Capton on the bid, which also has the backing of outside investors including LVMH billionaire Bernard Arnault, said one of the people.
The trio is already a major player in European TV production via their special purpose acquisition company Mediawan, but for this bid they have created a new entity that would buy the M6 stake.
The sale process could also take a political turn because it comes roughly a year before France holds presidential elections, and print and television media assets are seen as key instruments of influence. Media ownership in the country is already dominated by billionaires, who own influential newspapers such as Le Monde and Le Figaro and news stations including BFM.
“Some buyers seem after a trophy asset, maybe lured by the hope of political influence,” said François Godard, a media analyst at Enders, but the views of the competition regulators were “the big question mark”.
“Industrial rationale calls for consolidation,” he said. “Will regulators reset their worldview to accept that the relevant market now includes online platforms competing with national TV channels for viewers and advertising spend?”
If so, that would imply letting traditional broadcasters such as TF1 and M6 merge so as to better compete with streaming giants, he explained.
RTL’s revenue fell 9.5 per cent to €6n last year as advertisers cut their TV budgets. Its operating profit fell 26 per cent to €853m. RTL said it would aim for revenues to rebound by 8 per cent this year and for operating profit of €975m.