ACCC ready to give consent to Foxtel’s proposal to acquire Ten Network

The Australian Competition and Consumer commission has given its consent to pay-TV ace Foxtel’s proposal of buying 15 percent of Network Ten television on Thursday.

While discussing the matter, the regulator at first raised doubts over whether the investment of $77 million would reduce competition or rush among personnel to gather premium content, including sports rights and advertising.

However, the commission later came to the conclusion that there are already a number of alternatives with attractive program content on offer for viewers, meaning the free-to-air television network, online service providers and pay television providers will not face any lack of competition in the entertainment broadcast industry.

“Foxtel and Ten will continue to face competition from the remaining free-to-air networks, and streaming services are also likely to become increasingly important to the sale of sports rights,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.

During its discussion regarding whether to say yes to Foxtel’s proposal, the regulator examined if it could increase the number of sports programs on the network. It also tried to find out if the extra financial resource would allow Ten to take advantage of its rivals, so far as sport broadcast rights’ security was concerned.

“The ACCC has not found sufficient evidence to establish a link between these minority acquisitions and the competition concerns raised by market participants,” Sims claimed. “We will, however, closely examine any future increases in these shareholdings, including where this is made possible through changes to the existing media diversity and control rules.”

According to a report by SkyNews, Ten’s non executive chairman David Gordon said that the consent to the deal was a crucial issue as the third-placed free-to-air TV Network reported a huge loss of $264.4 million in April 2015. Foxtel’s investment would help the network television receive sufficient capital to keep its turnaround consistent, the chairman added.

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