Fairfax shareholders approve takeover of Australian television giant Nine

Sydney (AFP) – Shareholders of the venerable Australian newspaper group Fairfax on Monday overwhelmingly approved the acquisition of the company by broadcaster Nine Entertainment, creating a new media giant.

The vote sealed the creation of the first Australian media company with open access television, print platforms, video and digital streaming, and should allow greater concentration in a sector already dominated by a handful of media. # 39; giant actors.

Fairfax Media said investors voted 81.49 percent in favor of the buyout, compared to just 18.5 percent.

The combined group will call Nine and go into business on Dec. 10, pending final approval by the Federal Court, expected by November 27.

Fairfax Media, which has been a staple of Australian news for over 170 years, will cease to exist.

The Nine-Fairfax merger, worth 4 billion Australian dollars (2.9 billion US dollars), was the first agreement reached under a controversial law on media ownership passed on. 39 last year, which removed the restrictions that prevented businesses from owning newspapers, radio and free TV channels in the same city.

The major market players have long called for this change, saying the rules were outdated and did not take into account digital media platforms and new players such as Google and Facebook, which have destroyed the lion's share of advertising revenue. the media sector.

The country's largest media group, News Corp, owned by Rupert Murdoch, has already begun to develop cross-platform agreements with free TV channels, and many analysts believe that it could merge in turn with Seven West, which operates the country's most popular television channel. television network.

Critics of the new media law complain that this will further damage the diversity of Australia's information sector.

Like media outlets around the world, Fairfax has been cutting jobs for years and Nine's takeover has sparked fears of further editorial content cuts.

Nine have already announced their intention to sell Fairfax's rural and regional newspapers.

However, the Australian Commission for Competition and Consumer Affairs said this month that the Fairfax-Nine merger "would not substantially reduce competition in any market".

The ACCC acknowledged that the deal would only leave four major media companies "concentrating its efforts on Australian news", but the advent of the Internet had brought many players to the news. 39, online news to "provide some degree of restriction of competition".