The European Commission (“Commission”) has approved the acquisition of Bonnier Broadcasting by Telia, conditional upon full compliance with a commitment package offered by Telia.
Telia Company, based in Sweden, is a telecommunication operator and the parent company of the Telia group. The Telia group provides mobile and fixed telecommunications services as well as broadband and television services in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. Bonnier Broadcasting Holding, based in Sweden, is a TV broadcasting company active primarily in Sweden and Finland, and in Denmark and Norway with a limited market share. Bonnier Broadcasting also owns the Finnish production company Mediahub and produces news and other journalism content in Sweden and Finland.
As a result of the review carried out by the Commission into the acquisition, the following competition concerns had been raised:
- Telia's competitors in TV distribution would have access problem to the merged entity's free-to-air and basic pay TV channels, and premium pay TV sports channels,
- Telia's competitors in telecom services would have access problem s to the merged entity's streaming services, namely advertising video on demand (AVOD) and subscription video on demand services (SVOD); and
- Telia’s competitors in telecom and TV distribution would have access problem to advertising space on the merged entity's TV channels.
In response to these competition concerns, Telia proposed following commitment package:
Based on these commitments, Commission approved the acquisition and made these commitments binding on parties for 10 years in Finland and Sweden.