The operation may have cost more than one and a half billion euros (1.55 billion), but it will have taken place in just three and a half months and, at this stage, without any hitch or pain. CMA CGM and the Altice group announced on Tuesday, July 2, the closing of the sale of Altice Media to CMA Media, the media branch of the Marseille logistics and maritime freight giant.
From embryonic, it has become a major player in the sector, with BFM-TV still being, until last May, the leading news channel in France. On Monday, July 1, audience data for the month of June showed that it had, for the second consecutive month, been overtaken by CNews.
Nothing stood in the way of the transaction, announced on March 15, after the Competition Authority and then the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom) gave their respective green lights on Friday, June 28. Both of them set two relatively minimal conditions.
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The first aims to eliminate the risk of abuse of a monopoly situation on the advertising market in the south-east of France. Indeed, as it already owns the daily newspapers Provence et Corsica-Morning, The Competition Authority is asking CMA Médias not to engage in any form of group sales of advertising space between the Marseille daily and the local news channels BFM PACA (Marseille, DICI – Alpes du Sud and Haute-Provence –, Nice and Toulon) for at least five years. The advertising agencies will therefore remain separate.
“Ethical obligations”
For its part, the audiovisual regulator requires the buyer to make commitments in terms of“ethical obligations”such as respect for the “pluralism, honesty and independence of information and programs”. The group also provided its daily newspaper last week Provence of a charter of editorial independence and ethics. Arcom also requests that the channels BFM Lyon and BFM Alsace no longer be broadcast on DTT, their sale occurring less than five years after their purchase and the granting of a broadcasting authorization.
The RMC Sport channels will remain outside the operation. Patrick Drahi’s group will continue to supply them with sports rights and distribute them, while their production will be ensured by the RMC teams, who will indeed be moving under the Marseille flag.
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Altice Medias employees (BFM-TV, BFM Business, BFM Régions, RMC, RMC Découverte, etc.) should not see their working conditions change in the immediate future. The group will continue to occupy its premises in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, while waiting to welcome, presumably, their new colleagues from The galleryAs a farewell gift from Patrick Drahi, who had owned the former NextRadioTV since 2015, they received an exceptional bonus of 3,000 euros gross, announced in an email from Arthur Dreyfuss, CEO of Altice France.
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