Environment may be better now for a Pro7-Springer deal: watchdog link http://reut.rs/1NWtoyQ
The market environment for a tie-up between media groups ProSiebenSat.1 and Axel Springer may be better than 10 years ago, when a similar attempt was derailed by regulators, the head of German media watchdog KEK said.
ProSieben and Axel Springer have restarted talks about a variety of options including a merger, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
More than a decade ago, an attempt at such a deal was blocked both by competition and media regulators, but circumstances have changed since then, Ralf Mueller-Terpitz, the head of KEK, told Reuters in an interview.
"The situation has changed in so far as that ProSiebenSat.1 slightly has lost market share and Springer has changed its portfolio," Mueller-Terpitz said.
"From my point of view that is a change in circumstances. In case of a merger we will have to take a very close look."
He declined to go into details about a potential examination of such a deal.
Due to Germany's Nazi history, there is particular sensitivity about one media group potentially gaining too much influence on public opinion. Any merger affecting the television market is subject to review not only on antitrust matters but also on issues of media concentration.
Springer challenged the decision to block its attempted purchase of ProSieben in court, and last year won the legal battle against the KEK when Germany's federal administrative court ruled the merger would not have been problematic from a media point of view.
"We have to take into account the ruling of the Federal Administrative Court, which said that a 20-percent audience market share of a television station is the benchmark in order to go into an in-depth legal analysis about media concentration," Mueller-Terpitz said.