The Prohibition of the Proposed Springer-ProSiebenSat.1-Merger: How much Economics in German Merger Control?



Springer-ProSiebenSat.1-Merger

15


Bohne 2006: 546-548; Idot 2006: 185-186). However, this can also be abused to cre-
ate monopolies in distinct media markets, as the Italian example shows (
Kremmyda
2006: 194). Taking all this into consideration, one must conclude that it is not satisfy-
ing to simply claim prohibitive entry barriers in tradition with past cases. Instead, the
subject of entry barriers to the German TV advertising market would have merited a
more elaborate and insightful economic analysis.

3.1.2 Conglomerate Effects, Symmetry, and the Role of “BILD”

So, to what extent does the conglomerate combination of P7S1’s TV stations and
AS’s newspaper BILD strengthen the collective dominance on the TV advertising
markets? Since the barriers to entry-problematic basically runs along the same lines
as discussed in the preceding section, we will concentrate on multimarket contacts
and an enhanced symmetry of Bertelsmann-RTLGroup and AS-P7S1 post-merger.

The Bundeskartellamt (2006: 38-41) outlines that the merger would lead to a further
assimilation of the corporate structures of the two conglomerates (Bertelsmann-
RTLGroup, AS-P7S1), which post-merger both include TV and print markets (AS-
P7S1 predominantly newspapers and magazines, Bertelsmann-RTLGroup predomi-
nantly magazines and books). The merger would also result in a number of interlocks
between them. All in all this would further secure and strengthen the duopoly in the
TV advertising market (
Bundeskartellamt 2006: 38). The more the market and corpo-
rate structures of oligopolists resemble each other, the more likely they will be able to
stabilize parallel behaviour. The increasing symmetry between the two conglomerates
raises the number of fields in which the duopolists are able to retaliate divergent be-
haviour (disciplining force of multimarket contact). Last but not least the cartel office
stresses the unique potential of AS’s newspaper BILD to serve as a substitute for TV
advertising, which would be omitted if AS and P7S1 merged.

Stressing the unique market position and characteristics of BILD is a recurrent pattern
in the line of argumentation of the
Bundeskartellamt (2006: 18, 39, 42, 43, 55, 57, 58,
62, 64). This position as the single nationwide daily over-the-counter newspaper,
reaching much more consumers than any single other newspaper, is responsible for a
large part of the allegedly anticompetitive effects of the merger.16 Indeed, if BILD
had not possessed such a unique market position, most of the anticompetitive con-
cerns would not have played a role at all. However, the extraordinary, incommensur-
able character of BILD stands in contrast to the claim that the merger makes the TV
advertising oligopolists more symmetric. Bertelsmann produces a prominent (weekly)
political magazine (DER SPIEGEL) as well as some regional newspapers17 but fun-
damentally nothing comparable to BILD18. Therefore, one could argue in favour of an

16 See next to the reasoning so far in particular section 3.2.

17 These are Sachsische Zeitung, MoPo Sachsen.

18 The only nationwide newspaper of Bertelsmann is the Financial Times Deutschland, a niche product
with a negligible market share on the newspapers advertising market.



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