What is the future of the M6 group to which RTL belongs? On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the group, the chairman of its management board, Nicolas de Tavernost was the guest of Indulge this April 11, 2022 to discuss the proposed merger with the TF1 group. “The M6 channel will remain the M6 channel with its qualities, progressing and having more programs. Today we are in a period of engagement with the TF1 group”, notes Nicolas de Tavernost.
“I don’t know if it’s a difficult engagement, but it’s an engagement that has to go through stages. It obviously disrupts the ecosystem. But why this choice of our shareholders? The world is changing, we want to anticipate, there are new international competitors very powerful [comme les plateformes Netflix, Disney, Amazon, ndlr] and we must continue and accelerate our investments, particularly in creation, drawing on the strength of the two groups. In fiction, TF1 has great strength in this area. This association should make it possible to have a very large French group, a very fine group in any case. And we are waiting for an authorization for the fall”.
Nicolas de Tavernost also saluted the memory of Jean Drucker “the one who launched the channel on the antennas”. “He was at the origin with Thomas Valentin and myself of the creation of this channel. On March 1, 1987 he said: ‘Let the party begin!’ and the party continues. Today we are very happy. It was not won in advance, because no one was expecting us. A minister even said at the time ‘it’s the channel too much’, says Nicolas de Tavernost. It galvanized us.”