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Denver – Moroccan equity firm the Deposit and Management Fund (CDG) Invest has acquired sole ownership of public broadcasting channel Medi1 TV, after a MAD 105 million ( $11.9 million) buyout.
The company plans on holding on to ownership of Medi1 TV until government entity SNRT can meet official legal regulations. At this time, CDG will transfer ownership of the channel to SNRT.
According to local news, The buyout is a part of a larger restructuring of the Moroccan public broadcast system. The plans were formally announced on May 25th by Minister of Culture Othmane El Firdaous. The SNRT, Morocco’s official public broadcaster, has intentions of taking full control of Medi1, as well as all other public broadcasting channels in the country.
The Moroccan government has initiated this take over to try and revive the popularity of public TV, which has been steadily declining throughout the country. By the completion of the plan SNRT will maneuver itself to be the controlling owners of 25 public channels, and two formerly private channels: Medi1 TV and Medi1 Radio.
The end goal of this takeover is to increase advertising revenue for the government in the public television sector. But, many are saying the financial risk is still immense, especially as Morocco “suffers from several dysfunctions” in its advertising market. These issues mostly stem from the past monopolization of broadcasting services in the country, which has led to a “compartmentalized” model that prevents transparent financing into the advertising industry. This system also makes the country even more susceptible to being dominated by larger institutions such as Google and Facebook, which hoard the majority of advertising capital.
The long term sustainability of the project is still under question, as the government must decide whether it’s ready to pay for the costs of an outdated system that may, or may not, respond with an increase of revenue, especially as larger amounts of people continue to opt for streaming services.
