Press Release 26/2019

 

 

The AdC (Autoridade da Concorrência) decided today not to oppose to the merger  whereby Cofina SGPS S.A. would acquire sole control of Grupo Media Capital SGPS, S.A.

 

After concluding an exhaustive analysis, the AdC considers that the merger is unlikely to harm competition in any of the relevant markets, such as the supply of basic pay-TV channels, in the press and other digital contents and advertising markets.

 

The AdC considers that the entity resulting from the merger will have significant positions in several markets in which it is involved. However, these positions pre-exist the current operation and, where overlapping occurs, the resulting increase of market  share  is small and does not give rise to competitive   concerns.

 

From the users’ perspective, there is overlap between the merging parties in the market for (wholesale) supply of basic pay-TV channels and in the market for digital press and contents.  From  the  advertisers’  perspective,  there  is  overlap  in  the  market  for  TV advertising and in the market for online advertising. The structural changes in these markets resulting from the merger are relatively small and do not raise competition concerns.

 

As an example, in the pay-TV access channel market, the merger aggregates the second and fifth largest operators in the market. The resulting company becomes the main operator of this market which, however, does not demonstrate a particularly high level of concentration. The structural change resulting from the operation is therefore of little significance.

 

The AdC is confident that the competitive assessment in its decision is sufficiently in-  depth to answer the questions raised by the interested third  parties  of  the  procedure, which have been taken into account in the    investigation and analysis.

 

The investigation involved interviews with two associations representing media buying agencies (covering over 90% of their activity in Portugal) and one association representing advertisers.  All  of  them  had  a  positive  view  on  the  merger  and  confirmed  the  AdC’s preliminary   assessment.

 

Furthermore, both the sector regulator for communications (ANACOM) and sector regulator for the media (ERC) issued opinions whereby neither of them opposed this merger.

 

During the consultation period, the following entities presented their observations: Impresa,   Global   Notícias   and   the   Journalists’   Trade   Union.   Having   taken such observations into consideration, the AdC did not change its opinion on the merger and issued a final non-opposition decision.

 

This merger was notified to the AdC on 1st October, 2019.

 

Lisboa, 30 de dezembro, 2019