Media Mergers And The Competition Bureau: Is The Medium The Market?

The rapid growth of digital media in recent years and the simultaneous pressures on traditional media have led to a number of fascinating media transactions in which the Competition Bureau has had to confront the difficult question of product market definition in industries characterized by disruptive technological change.

In March 2015, the Bureau cleared a magazine publishing transaction (TVA Group's acquisition of Transcontinental's magazine business) due, in its words, to the "presence of effective remaining competitors in all overlapping genres of magazines and the ability of advertisers to reach the same demographics through other magazines and media" (emphasis added). The Bureau also stated that it considered the "general decline in readership of magazines, in part attributable to the increasing importance of the Internet as an alternative for readers" (emphasis added).