The acquisition of Altice Media, the parent company of BFMTV and RMC, by CMA CGM was finalized on Tuesday. Arthur Dreyfuss, who had been announced as staying, is leaving the company. Nicolas de Tavernost is appointed interim CEO of RMC-BFM. Rumors – denied – also announce the departure of BFMTV boss Marc-Olivier Fogiel.
Announced in mid-March, this acquisition from Patrick Drahi’s Altice group received the green light on Friday from the audiovisual regulator, Arcom, and the Competition Authority. “After receiving approval from the relevant regulatory authorities, and following the announcement of March 15, the CMA CGM group and Merit France (the group’s family holding company) have today finalized the acquisition of 100% of the capital of Altice Media,” CMA CGM said.
Rodolphe Saadé, the Marseille shipowner, had specified on March 15 that the amount of the transaction was 1.55 billion euros. With this acquisition, Rodolphe Saadé and CMA CGM are adding a big stone to the media empire they are building, only two years after setting foot in the sector.
Independence
During this period, Rodolphe Saadé took over the newspaper La Tribune and the La Provence group (regional dailies La Provence and Corse Matin), in addition to holdings in M6 and Brut. In mid-May, CMA CGM recruited the outgoing boss of M6, Nicolas de Tavernost, as vice-president of its new holding company CMA Média.
But the construction of this new media giant has raised fears about independence. In March, journalists in Provence went on strike for 72 hours. They were protesting the dismissal of the editorial director, after a front page story on Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Marseille was deemed “ambiguous” by management.
On Thursday, the unions and management of La Provence signed a “charter of editorial independence and ethics”, which guarantees the protection of journalists against “any form of pressure”.
Also in March, Rodolphe Saadé had tried to reassure Altice Media staff about jobs and his desire not to interfere directly in the work of editorial staff.
An exceptional bonus of 3,000 euros
On Monday, Altice France CEO Arthur Dreyfuss announced internally that an exceptional bonus of 3,000 euros gross would be awarded to Altice Media employees, to “thank them” before the acquisition is finalized.
CMA Media announces the departure of Arthur Dreyfuss, Nicolas de Tavernost is appointed interim CEO of RMC-BFM. Rumors – denied by the person concerned to The Media Leader – also announce a departure of the boss of BFMTV Marc-Olivier Fogiel who would take the direction of Paris Match, bought by LVMH.
“Together, we will develop a center of excellence at the forefront of technological innovations, with a presence on all media (…) and a strong local base,” wrote Rodolphe Saadé, in a letter addressed to RMC-BFM employees, to which The Media Leader was able to have access.
Competition from CNews
BFMTV has long been the number one continuous news channel in France. But in May and then in June, it was overtaken by CNews.
While authorizing the acquisition by CMA CGM on Friday, the Competition Authority made it conditional on compliance with commitments concerning the advertising market in the south of France, where CMA CGM now owns La Provence and the local channels BFM Paca. No advertising coupling between the press group and the TV channels may be offered to advertisers. There will thus be a strict separation of the press advertising agencies (La Tribune, La Provence, etc.) and audiovisual.
CMA CGM has also made commitments to Arcom. These relate in particular to “pluralism, honesty and independence of information and programmes”, the regulator indicated in a press release, while BFMTV is applying for the renewal of its TNT (digital terrestrial television) frequency.
As part of the green light from Arcom, two local BFM channels, BFM Lyon and BFM Alsace, must stop broadcasting on DTT to migrate online. Indeed, their authorizations dated from 2021 and 2023 respectively. However, the law prohibits the transfer of a channel within five years of the allocation of their DTT frequency.
