Foxtel and their owners Telstra and News Corporation are confident that the deal will go through.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission will hold a meeting tomorrow and its decision on Foxtel’s stake purchase will be announced on Thursday.
“There will be a discussion this week where we’re scheduled to make a decision,” the ACCC chairman told The Australian. “Subject to how the decision making goes, this might be an approval or the release of a statement of issues.”
The Australian which is owned by News Corpration a 50% partner in Foxtel claimed that rumours in media circles were that Fairfax Media and Nine Network have embarked on a campaign raising concerns about issues pertaining to sports rights and movies. Foxtel and Ten declined to comment.
As part of the investment, Ten has acquired a 24.99 per cent stake in pay-TV sales house Multi Channel Network, and secured an option to acquire 10 per cent of online service Presto TV, a competitor to US streaming giant Netflix.
Foxtel chief Richard Freudenstein has described the proposed alliance as “pro-competitive”.
For decades, the free-to-air advertising market was split roughly 40-30-plus-30-minus between the three main commercial networks, with the ratings winner usually getting a much bigger share. But in recent years it has become a stubborn 40-40-20, split, with Ten running a distant third to the Seven and Nine networks.
If the ACCC grants approval, Ten will start a $77m capital raising at the same price as the issue of shares to Foxtel.
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