The UK’s culture secretary Lisa Nandy this morning outlined plans to modernise the UK’s media mergers regime, updating it for the digital age. The changes would widen the scope of the regime beyond television, radio, and print newspapers to also cover digital news publications and news magazines.
The culture secretary in the UK has powers, outlined in the Enterprise Act 2002, to intervene in mergers and acquisitions of broadcasters, daily and Sunday newspapers, and local periodical newspapers, whenever there are concerns around the impact a proposed deal might have on media plurality, freedom of expression, and accuracy of reporting.
But the media landscape has obviously evolved massively since 2002, and Nandy says that laws “haven’t kept pace with technology and evolving news consumption habits”.
“As people increasingly get their news online, we need a regime that is future-proof,” she said. “That’s why I’m proposing further reforms to protect the availability of accurate, high-quality news from a variety of sources, ensuring media freedom continues to be upheld.”
The change would mean that mergers and acquisitions involving online-only news sources in the UK – such as HuffPost or The Independent – or print publications’ online outlets would be subject to review by the culture secretary whenever certain conditions (relation go turnover or share of supply) are met. Weekly and monthly print publications like The Economist and Prospect will also be affected.
A consultation had been launched to collate views on expanding the scope of the regime, which the government says will apply to both public interest media mergers and the new foreign state influence regime, which was created in response to Saudi Arabia-backed IMI RedBird’s attempt to acquire The Telegraph.
No undue pressure
As Nandy says, the proposed changes would better represent the modern media landscape, where digital news publications in many cases attract more readership than print newspapers.
But as publishers and broadcasters struggle to compete with tech platforms, some may argue that more comprehensive reform is needed. Laws which make it harder for publishers and broadcasters to join forces in order to present a stronger alternative to the tech giants arguably don’t reflect the current news media landscape. Ofcom data cited by the government shows that only 34 percent of UK adults access news either via print newspapers or those same newspapers’ online platforms. Meanwhile 52 percent of UK adults use social media as a news source.
The government says the proposed reforms wont put “undue pressure” on businesses, and added that the UK has “a strong track record for encouraging investment which has been critical to growth within the media and wider creative industries”.
