Australian Regulator Doubtful Over iSentia Buy

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has expressed its concern that the sale of the Australian Associated Press (AAP) media monitoring business to media intelligence group iSentia would create a monopoly in the market.

iSentia announced the potential deal in October, declaring at the time that the transaction would be subject to approval by the country's competition regulator.

The ACCC has now said in a statement that its preliminary view is that the proposed acquisition is likely to result in a 'substantial lessening of competition' in the national market for the supply of media monitoring services. It also feels that new entry or expansion by an existing market participant is unlikely in the near future, given the scale, equipment and copyright licences required to establish a national media monitoring service.

Chairman Rod Sims (pictured) comments: 'Market inquiries have indicated that iSentia and AAP are the only national providers of a full suite of media monitoring services demanded by large companies and government departments. These market participants did not consider that smaller providers of media monitoring services, such as online-only monitoring companies, were likely to constrain iSentia post-acquisition as they do not represent a viable alternative to the broad spectrum of media monitoring provided by the merger parties.'

The ACCC invites further submissions from the market by 31st January 2014, and has deferred its final decision until 20th February.

Web sites: www.aap.com.au , www.isentia.com and www.accc.gov.au .