Portugal’s media regulator has delivered a blow to the plans of Altice to acquire commercial TV channel TVI.
Anacom has told competition authority AdC that the European Commission’s 30% ceiling on media shareholdings would be exceeded in a number of areas. The acquisition would bring together TVI with cable company MEO.
There are concerns that a combined entity might completely or partially block rival channels SIC and RTP from pay-TV platforms. Fears have also been voiced of a reduction in transparency in the prices charged on the country’s DTT platform, obscuring whether regulatory conditions have been met.
Anacom says the powers it has available to it would not be sufficient to guard against the impact of the merger, which should not go ahead in its present form.
