The Competition Commission of India has conditionally approved the merger of Sony and Zee. The conditions were imposed to prevent the combined entity from abusing its dominant position in the market. The entity will run more than 90 channels after the merger goes through. It may have 45% of the Hindi language market. It is feared that the merged entity would have a dominant position in advertising and channel pricing.
The amalgamation has been granted approval subject to the two media houses carrying out certain modifications. Neither media house shared details of the conditions laid down by the CCI. It is believed that the proposed remedies include the merged entity offering pricing discounts and restructuring its bouquet of channels.
The merger had been announced in September last year. Zee will hold a shareholders’ meeting on October 14 to seek their approval on the amalgamation.