Morocco to Overhaul Public Broadcasting: SNRT, 2M, and Medi1 TV Merger Planned

During a meeting of the Education, Culture and Communication Commission in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, the Minister of Culture, Othman El Ferdaous, explained what this reorganization of the public audiovisual pole announced on the Al Aoula news on Monday consists of. This project will take place in several stages, starting with the repayment of the debts of the two companies Soread-2M and Medi1 TV through a "debt restructuring", since now the two media will be under the responsibility of SNRT.

For Medi1, the CDG will have to cede its shares to SNRT. The minister plans in his plan to merge Medi1 Radio and Régie 3. The new holding company will reorganize all these subsidiaries into business companies, and this reorganization will be followed by the repositioning of the Medi1 TV channel as a continuous news channel, dedicated to the Moroccan public, with local news, the minister added.

The objective of this reorganization is to facilitate public financing management. Thus, "with this reorganization, the State will be able to manage the sector with an integrated and long-term vision". In addition, the grouping of all these media under a holding company will also make it possible to reduce costs, by benefiting from continuous training, technical resources, television program purchases, data management and others.

In addition, the new financial margins will be devoted to the realization of a "stylistic revolution" of national audiovisual production in terms of sets, styling, branding and others. The project will also be followed by a digitization of the public audiovisual pole. In this sense, a call for tenders has been launched for a VOD service, merging freemium and subscription. This platform will provide access to all audiovisual productions broadcast on Moroccan channels, or about 80 films and series per year.