Sony, Zee Offer Concessions To Ease Watchdog Worry Over Merger: Report

Last week, Sony-Zee submitted “voluntary treatments” to the deal in writing to assuage watchdog’s issues

NEW DELHI:

A unit of Sony Group and Zee Entertainment have proposed providing concessions similar to pricing reductions to assist ease issues of the nation’s antitrust regulator over their merger, which can create a $10-billion TV behemoth, two sources informed Reuters.

The concessions are a bid to iron out antitrust worries of the Competition Commission of India (CCI), which in an Aug. 3 discover warned the businesses of additional scrutiny, saying their “humongous market place” would permit them to get pleasure from “un-paralleled bargaining energy” with 92 channels in huge media and leisure market.

In specific, the CCI was involved over how huge an impression on competitors the merged entity would have when it comes to promoting and channel pricing, significantly within the standard Hindi language phase. Legal consultants and former CCI officers stated such scrutiny was set to delay the deal approval course of.

Last week, Sony-Zee submitted “voluntary treatments” to the deal in writing to assuage the watchdog’s issues, although that didn’t embody structural modifications such because the sale of sure channels to scale back the specter of competitors, stated the 2 sources, who declined to be named resulting from confidentiality issues.

Instead, Sony and Zee advised not less than two so-called behavioural treatments, the sources stated.

Under these, the primary supply stated, Sony and Zee stated their merged entity was open to providing obligatory pricing incentives and reductions to all channel distributors, similar to direct-to-home satellite tv for pc operators, on honest and non-discriminatory phrases for a sure interval after the deal.

And to assuage issues over the entity’s sturdy market place with advertisers, the events proposed creating and working “impartial promoting verticals” for a sure period, the supply added.

Spokespersons of Sony and Zee didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Representatives of Sony in Japan didn’t reply exterior common enterprise hours. The CCI didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the concessions.

Three Indian antitrust legal professionals aware of the processes stated such treatments by Sony-Zee might be a part of ongoing negotiations between the businesses and the watchdog. The latter might be free to just accept or reject them, or ask for extra concessions, they stated.

“If the CCI shouldn’t be satisfied with the treatments, the matter will go to Phase II — an in depth investigation stage,” stated Vaibhav Choukse, a contest regulation accomplice at India’s J. Sagar Associates, who shouldn’t be concerned within the matter.

“The CCI has the whip hand and has, on events, adopted a ‘take it or depart it’ method,” he added.

Sony and Zee in December determined to merge their tv channels, movie belongings and streaming platforms to create a powerhouse in a key progress market of 1.4 billion individuals, that can problem rivals like Walt Disney Co.

The CCI’s preliminary findings, legal professionals and former officers have stated, will delay CCI approval of the deal and lengthen the method by months at a essential second for the Indian firm.

Zee is a family TV title in India arrange in 1992 by Subhash Chandra, dubbed the “Father of Indian Television”. Its founders needed to dilute their stake within the Indian firm to deal with debt in 2019 and the Sony deal was struck amid a 2021 boardroom battle with an abroad shareholder.

For Sony, the merger will additional its ambitions to faucet extra digital, TV and regional language audiences within the fast-growing Indian market, the place worldwide rivals additionally embody the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.