Green light for Ten bid
ACCC clears path for Murdoch and Gordon
TEN’S billionaire shareholders Lachlan Murdoch and Bruce Gordon have been given the regulatory all-clear to launch a joint takeover of the embattled free-to-air network.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has ruled the duo’s bid was unlikely to bring the industry any “substantial lessening” of competition.
However, a Ten Network under the control of Mr Gordon and Mr Murdoch would deliver “greater alignment” of the interests of the two media moguls and Ten, the regulator said on Thursday.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims also said the deal could weaken competitive incentives but said Ten and the Murdoch-linked Foxtel and News Corporation would remain competitors in a number of markets and be subject to competition laws.
“While this transaction will result in some reduction in diversity across the Australian media landscape, we have concluded it would not substantially lessen competition,” Mr Sims said.
In its assessment the ACCC consulted with competitors, broadcasters, sports rights holders, content producers and advertisers as it judged the impact on news supply, bidding for sports rights and ad markets.
Southern Cross chief executive Grant Blackley, whose radio conglomerate switched affiliation from Ten to Nine last year, said Southern Cross was watching “with interest” should the Ten deal eventuate.
“Obviously we still need the media reforms to get through the Senate, I guess we’ll judge it accordingly at that point in time,” Mr Blackley said, referring to changes to media ownership legislation currently before Parliament.
Nine chief executive Hugh Marks said while the ACCC’s decision “resolved uncertainty”, Google and Facebook were of greater concern as competitors for the industry than “the old combats” between networks.
“I think we are working pretty well as an industry now to face the competitive threat,” Mr Marks said.
Mr Marks said fragmentation and loss of audiences across those big technology platforms was of greater concern “rather than whether there will be a better newsroom at Ten”.