Mexico’s Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) has become the latest and final regulator to approve Disney’s USD 73.1 billion merger with the assets of 21st Century Fox, albeit with conditions, including the requirement to sell Fox Sports channels. As in Brazil and other countries, the IFT unanimously agreed to give its green light to Disney’s purchase as long as it agreed to sell Fox’s 22 regional sports networks. Its ownership of those channels and cable sports network ESPN would otherwise give the company undue influence in sports broadcasting, said the watchdog. The company also agreed to sell a 50 percent stake in A+E Networks in Europe and to separate licensing and provision between Disney’s A&E, History, H2 and Lifetime networks and Fox’s National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild channels.
In a statement, the IFT said the accumulation of market power resulting from the merger would be “considerable”, which is why “structural measures were chosen, as occurred in other parts of the world” as a condition to approve the deal. Above all, Disney’s ownership of both ESPN and Fox Sports would create a concentration that would leave Grupo Televisa as the only remaining competitor in that market.
Following the Mexico clearance, Disney said it expects to complete the takeover of 21CF on 20 March. The takeover was agreed last June.
