Wednesday 13 February 2013

North Wales businesses are Real losers according to Competition Commission

Businesses in North Wales will end up paying a higher price for their advertising if Heart FM owners Global are allowed to buy Real Radio.

Not my words...but the initial findings of a Competition Commission inquiry into the proposed merger.

The body charged with competition issues uttered some damning words in its preliminary statement on the issue -

"The advertisers most likely to lose out from this deal are those who do not use national media agencies, and so includes smaller and medium-sized companies. These advertisers rely on the presence of competing commercial stations in order to negotiate a good deal."

The Competition Commission has identified seven areas where they are concerned the ownership of all of the local stations by one group raises significant concerns -two of those areas are Cardiff and North Wales.

The Competition Commission now want to hear from businesses and politicians in those areas on their thoughts.

To see what the report says and how to comment on it, click here
http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/assets/competitioncommission/docs/2012/global-radio-gmg/summary_of_pfs.pdf

To see what remedies they suggest and to comment on them, click here
http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/assets/competitioncommission/docs/2012/global-radio-gmg/remedies_notice.pdf