Antena 3, laSexta ‘astonished’ over merger conditions

Iñaki Ferreras | 20-07-2012

Spanish Grupo Planeta’s Antena 3 has rejected the terms imposed upon it by Spain’s National Competition Commission (CNC) for its merger with LaSexta.

The broadcaster has condemned the plans which it compared with those applied in the merger of Telecinco and Cuatro, calling them “unfair and discriminatory. Indeed Antena 3 asserts trha the CNC has provided a dozen additional and more severe limitations to those assumed on the former merger among which are the creation of two entirely separate companies for the sale of advertising, the reduction of shareholding in composing a commercial package and the increase from 3 to 5 years in applying these terms and conditions.

In all Antena 3 says that these conditions will leave it at a competitive disadvantage with arch rival Mediaset Spain for whom it adds the new measures will “strengthen and shield in the coming years [Mediaset’s] absolute dominance.”

Antena 3 has thus decided not to accept the conditions of the decision of the CNC and says that it will exhaust all appropriate legal and administrative avenues with the aim of defending the operation and the interests of Grupo Antena 3 and its shareholders. In a statement it said: “It is difficult to understand how an organisation which fosters the existence of clean business competition helps build a model quite disproportionate to the advantages given to the dominant operator and punishes the weakest groups.”