New boss and new era for the M6 group: David Larramendy, 50, was officially appointed chairman of the board on Tuesday and succeeds the emblematic Nicolas de Tavernost, at the helm for 37 years.
Mr. de Tavernost, 73, has headed M6 since its creation in March 1987, first as deputy to the first CEO Jean Drucker then as boss since 2000. The group notably owns the TV channel of the same name and RTL radio.
Announced on February 13, the appointment of his successor was ratified on Tuesday by the supervisory board, after the general meeting, the group indicated in its first quarter results press release.
While welcoming a “good transition”, Mr. de Tavernost confessed a “little pang in his heart” Tuesday morning on RTL, the in-house radio station for which he had reserved his last public speech as number 1.
The M6 group, whose main shareholder is the German giant Bertelsmann, includes four free TV channels (M6, W9, 6ter, Gulli), nine pay channels (including Paris Première and Téva), three radio stations (RTL, RTL2, Fun Radio) and production companies (like SND for cinema).
Rentable
Mr. Larramendy has headed the group’s advertising management since the end of 2014.
A Parisian attached to his Basque roots, he joined M6 in 2008, after having notably worked for the merchant website MisterGoodDeal in the early 2000s and then for the investment bank Goldman Sachs in London.
Married to a Brazilian art specialist and father of two daughters, he has dual training as an engineer and financier, at Supélec then at the prestigious American school Wharton.
Its main challenge will be to move the M6 group into the audiovisual sector of tomorrow, while young people are turning away from traditional TV in favor of social networks and platforms such as Netflix.
Backed by successful shows like “Top Chef”, “L’amour est dans le pré” or the latest addition, “The Fair Price”, M6 will accelerate on on-demand television by launching its new free streaming platform in May , M6+, which will replace the current one, 6Play.
Faced with these challenges, the group can rely on its ability to make money. It is the most profitable in the French audiovisual landscape, with a margin of 22.9% in 2023.
Over the whole of last year, its net profit amounted to 234 million euros and its turnover to 1.3 billion, including 1 billion from advertising revenue.
Expensive streaming
“Nothing indicates that in 2025 or 2026, we will have a margin rate of the same nature,” Nicolas de Tavernost warned at the beginning of February before the parliamentary commission of inquiry into TNT (digital terrestrial television).
“We are going to make very significant investments in streaming, which will certainly have consequences on the margin for a certain period,” he explained.
Moreover, in the first quarter of 2024, the group’s current operating profit (EBITA) fell by 2.6%, to 57.9 million euros, “due to an increase in investments planned as part of the plan streaming”, underlined M6 in its results press release.
Over the same period, the group achieved 322.3 million euros in turnover (+3.0% compared to the previous year).
With messy hair, ice blue eyes and sharp wit, Mr. de Tavernost had the image of a leader for whom every penny saved is a penny earned.
Ironically, his latest coup was to win the rights to the 2026 and 2030 World Football Championships from TF1.
On RTL, he remained evasive about his future, indicating that he would “continue to work in other activities”, notably in the events group GL Events.
As general manager of M6 Publicité, David Larramendy is replaced by Hortense Thomine-Desmazures, who was until then deputy general director in charge of digital, innovation and marketing.