The merger between RTL Nederland and Talpa must not go ahead. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets does not issue a license for this, because the consumer would ‘pay the bill’ for the dominant position. The refusal may have consequences for streaming service Videoland.
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets writes in a press release that the merger between the two media companies must not go ahead and that they will not grant a license for it. According to the regulator, details will only follow in a few weeks. ACM had previously warned RTL and Talpa about the merger. The authority was afraid that the companies would gain too much power in the Dutch media landscape. RTL and Talpa therefore had to write a plan about how they wanted to prevent this. ACM now concludes that those plans were not sufficient.
ACM is afraid that the merger will create an ‘overly powerful party in the commercial media landscape’. “This leads to price increases for advertisers and for telecom providers who pass on the channels,” the regulator writes. “Ultimately, the consumer foots the bill.”
One of the reasons RTL and Talpa wanted to merge was to strengthen the Videoland streaming service. The companies previously by the merger to make Videoland more competitive with international streaming services. The companies would also like to set up their own advertising network together. That would be mainly intended for television advertisements, but there was also talk earlier about an online advertising network.
