The Australian-owned media companies sought a merger, so they might create a single media entity to dominate print and online news, to attract more advertisers and to produce the sort of economies of scale that would help them make more money. Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi last week announced Cabinet had approved the creation of a business case looking into at the formation of a super-sized, merged media entity to meet the demands and the challenges of the future. In knocking back the NZME/Stuff merger proposal, the commission warned of the loss of plurality and near total market dominance if one media outlet got such a significant, near monopolistic advantage over its competitors. This would be the case, too, if RNZ and TVNZ — operations with broad national reach — were merged. One government-owned, multimedia voice would disseminate content to a disproportionately large number of households, a new competitor to private business.

Source: Otago Daily Times February 13, 2020 15:33 UTC