M&A: Broadcasters search for scale

M&A activity amongst the broadcast fraternity is less tied into the tradeshow axis than movements amongst the vendors, so there has been a steady trickle of news as the year has progressed with no obvious reasons for any clumping. In brief, there seem to be two main drivers behind the scenes: the desire to scale as a direct response to the threat of Netflix et al; and the desire to acquire new technology, or at least collaborate on its development, to address the same issue.

That said, not everything runs smoothly. Altice France announced that it was in exclusive discussions to take over a majority interest in OTT platform provider Molotov back in January. Amounts were not disclosed, but Molotov had courted more than one investor, including France Télévisions, Canal+ and Orange, in a bid to accelerate the momentum that had seen it reach 7 million users in France in only a couple of years, albeit at a high burn rate. However, despite positive noises at the start of the year, by mid-May negotiations were said to be at a standstill. The situation is currently ongoing.

There is a significant amount of M&A activity in the marketing and ad tech technology space, up 28% quarter-over-quarter, and this is spilling over into the emerging digital ads sector in the broadcast industry. RTL Group kicked the year off proper by buying Yospace for $33m “including upfront…