By Stuart Thomson

Bouygues Group, owner of French commercial broadcaster TF1, and RTL Group, owner of rival M6 Group have signed agreements relating to the merger between Groupe TF1 and Groupe M6.

The move follows the employee representative bodies of Bouygues Group, TF1 Group and M6 Group issuing favourable opinions on the merger plan.

The completion of the deal remains subject to the usual conditions including approval by the relevant competition authroities and the shareholder general meetings of TF1 Group and M6 Group. The transaction is aimed to close by the end of 2022.

France’s competition watchdog, the Autorité de la Concurrence, launched a probe into the merger at the beginning of June.

The companies have said that the proposed merger will create a French media group “with the broadest TV, radio, digital, content production and technology offering to the benefit of all viewers and the French audiovisual industry.”

TF1 recently reorganised key management activities following the appointment of distribution chief Christine Bellin to oversee the merger.

Bellin, who oversaw the group’s digital activities before being placed in charge of distribution overall in 2019, took up her new role at the beginning of the month.