Advanced Television

France: Mediawan acquires AB Groupe

January 31, 2017

By Chris Forrester

French pay-TV broadcaster AB Groupe has been bought by Mediawan.

Mediawan is the media investment consortium set up by production producer Pierre-Antoine Capton, Iliad Telecom founder Xavier Niel and Lazard France head Matthieu Pigasse.

Mediawan is paying €270 million for AB Groupe, which is owned by Claude Berda and French commercial network TF1 (33.5 per cent).  Mediawan says it will need to raise €130 million in order to complete the transaction.

The purchase is subject to approval by shareholders, and a vote is scheduled for March 13th. The acquisition would place Mediawan as France’s second-largest pay-TV broadcaster.

Mediawan has plans to launch a rival OTT service to Netflix in France.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Business, M&A