RTL does not take over Nickelodeon after all
RTL's planned acquisition of the children's channel Nickelodeon will not go ahead: The Federal Cartel Office announced on Tuesday that it had informed both parties of its plans to block the merger, following which RTL withdrew the required notification.
The authority based its assessment primarily on the particularly sensitive area of advertising for children. RTL had intended to take over Nickelodeon from the US media company Paramount and merge it with Super RTL, which mainly targets children and young people. Nickelodeon is known for series such as "Paw Patrol" about a group of dogs with superpowers and "Spongebob" about the adventures of a sponge.
"There are only a very limited number of companies that offer advertising space specifically aimed at children, above all RTL with its relevant TV program," explained Andreas Mundt, President of the Federal Cartel Office. For example, there is no advertising at all on rival public broadcaster Kika. Super RTL is already "clearly the dominant offer in this area, which would gain significantly with the addition of Nickelodeon".
The Bundeskartellamt's merger control review was primarily concerned with the area of advertising, the statement continued. This had "clear special features" for the target group of children between the ages of three and 13 and had to be distinguished from other advertising.
In the end, the Cartel Office came to the conclusion that it viewed the planned merger "critically" and informed RTL and Paramount of this. As a result, "the corresponding notification was withdrawn". (SDA/swi)
