Patrick Drahi is finally authorized to separate from Altice Media in favor of Rodolphe Saadé, head of the CMA CGM group.
In turmoil since last summer and heavily indebted, the Altice group had initiated several action plans to recover cash. One of them was the sale to the CMA CGM group, headed by Rodolphe Saadé, of the Altice Médias division which includes BFM TV, RMC Découverte and RMC Story. The planned amount would be 1.55 billion euros.
The procedure was still awaiting validation from the audiovisual regulator and the latter has just given its approval for the project. All national television services authorized on DTT (BFM TV, RMC Découverte, RMC Story), local television services authorized on DTT (BFM services operated in different regions) as well as radio services broadcast on FM or DAB+ (BFM Business, BFM Radio, RMC), are concerned. RMC Sport will remain in the fold of Altice, the parent company of SFR.
The project was validated in light of the commitments made by CMA CGM, the latter being “relating to the ethical obligations attached to services offering information programmes, to pluralism, honesty and independence of information and programmes, to the committee relating to honesty, independence and pluralism of information and programmes and to the independence of editorial staff”. Prior to the issuance of this approval, Arcom revoked the authorizations of BFM Lyon Métropole and BFM Alsace, in accordance with the request of Altice France, and adopted new agreements to allow the continuation of the activity of these services on non-terrestrial networks.
This article was reprinted on the Univers FreeBox website
