The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued a paper providing guidance on how it will assess any proposed media mergers.
"The Federal Government discussion paper on media reform issued in March 2006* indicated that the ACCC would be asked to articulate its proposed approach to media mergers, with a particular focus on media market definition", ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today. "The Government announced its media reform proposals on 13 July 2006. Consequently, it is now timely for the ACCC to issue a paper on media mergers.
"The ACCC's paper provides guidance on its approach to media mergers. It discusses how the ACCC might consider such issues as the various dimensions of media markets – products, geographic and functional – as well as the relevant timeframe for considering media mergers.
"The paper does not and cannot provide hard-and-fast rules about the impact of specific media mergers on competition.
"The individual circumstances and competitive implications of any media merger proposals will need to be considered during a comprehensive and public clearance process".
The ACCC's paper on media mergers is available on the mergers section of the website.