The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the creation of a newly established joint venture based in Belgium by Liberty Global plc of the United Kingdom and DPG Media NV of Belgium. The joint venture will operate a Subscription Video on Demand (“SVOD”) business.
Liberty Global, through its subsidiary Telenet, is a cable and mobile network operator in Belgium. Telenet also owns and operates a number of Dutch-language TV channels, a radio station, an advertising sales house, a production company and several SVOD services. DPG Media is a Belgian media company offering newspapers, magazines, TV channels, an advertising video on demand (“AVOD”) service, radio stations and mobile services.
The Commission’s investigation found that the proposed transaction is unlikely to hinder effective competition in the markets concerned. This is, in particular because: (i) the joint venture, Liberty Global and DPG Media will each exercise their content acquisition activities separately, (ii) the joint venture will not include linear channels and ancillary services linked to the linear broadcasting of such channels, and (iii) a number of strong alternative SVOD players will remain in the market. In addition, the Commission found that the transaction does not raise concerns with respect to any of the vertical links between the upstream and the related downstream markets as the companies would not have the ability and/or the incentive to engage in practices to shut out customers or suppliers, and even if they did, there would be no appreciable effect on the markets.
The Commission therefore concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns in any of the markets examined. The transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure.
ec.europa.eu
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