MediaForEurope buys ProSiebenSat.1: Cross-border consolidation tested
Italy’s MediaForEurope (MFE) is set to become the majority shareholder of Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 (P7S1) and the largest FTA broadcaster in Europe.
In a consolidating German market, P7S1 had no alternative credible option than to accept the (increased) MFE offer.
MFE believes that its new leadership position in European broadcasting will allow it to challenge platforms such as YouTube for regional advertising budgets.
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The Berlusconi family-backed MediaForEurope’s (MFE) public offer may not be taken up by many ProSiebenSat.1 (P7) shareholders, but will allow it to raise its stake to above 30%.
Without a core shareholder, ProSieben has flipped-flopped through unsuccessful strategies to meet the digital transition challenge.
MFE believes that European commercial television must build cross-border scale to compete with global streamers.
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In a fluid but competitive German market, RTL vies for leadership
Having turned Sky Deutschland around, this divestment allows Sky to be much more focused on core regions with more diversified businesses
The Warner-Discovery and TF1-M6 merger plans have dramatically pushed consolidation up European commercial television’s agenda.
The first path—heralded by Bertelsmann’s RTL Group—would aim at creating
national broadcasters with the content scale to operate compelling online platforms.An alternative path revives the never achieved idea of pan-European synergies,
leveraging increased international appetite for non-English language content—but
its champion, Italy’s Mediaset, lacks capacity to deliver.
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8 November 2021The transition from linear to digital and on-demand usage has the potential to unravel national television ecosystems. Global tech monopolists may eventually control the interface and content discovery paths, pushing European providers down the supply chain.
Maintaining cultural sovereignty over the industry’s architecture is a prerequisite of a thriving, pluralistic ‘electronic public square’, as well as a high performing and locally-relevant creative economy.
Only consolidated commercial broadcasters have sufficient scale to steer national markets towards digital models where European content providers retain prominence and their ability to set the popular cultural agenda.