Bertelsmann's RTL Group S.A. (XTRA:RRTL) has scrapped a plan to sell its controlling stake in French TV group M6 Métropole Télévision S.A. (ENXTPA:MMT), the Luxembourg-based media group said, confirming an earlier Reuters report. RTL and Bouygues (BOUY.PA), the parent group of France's biggest private TV network TF1 (TFFP.PA), ended a plan to merge M6 and TF1 into a national television champion last month, saying demands by the French competition authority made it unworkable. RTL was "inundated" with expressions of interest in its 48% stake in the French TV network after the collapse of the TF1-M6 merger plan, its boss Thomas Rabe said shortly after.

Rabe had added that going on with a sale of the M6 stake was only an option.