Exclusion of monopolies

Although S. 23 of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Ordinance, 2002, does provide some guidance on the exclusion of monopolies but the Competition Act, 2010, is a special law on this matter as the violations such as abuse of dominant position, prohibited agreements, approval and non-approval of mergers and acquisitions and deceptive marketing practices are covered in detail under the Act to ensure consumer welfare and a free and open market to all competitors

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Ordinance, 2002, contains no provisions which envisage or provide for an enforcement mechanism to remedy anti-competitive practices

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Ordinance, 2002, appears to be a special law when it comes to the regulation of, inter alia, licensed activities

For alleged anti-competitive practices, Competition Act, 2010, is the special law for all such purposes and the Commission has the power to take cognizance of such matters.

Media enterprise could own more than one company engaged in the media business which would include a group of companies which were engaged in different areas of the media sector

Within electronic media, a media enterprise engaged in broadcast, distribution or publication and could operate another media enterprise engaged in the same line of work being broadcast, distribution or publication which was horizontal integration

Horizontal integration could give rise to oligopoly and in extreme cases monopoly, hence such integration was regulated by capping the number of licences a media enterprise could own in the same medium being broadcast, distribution or publication

Vertical integration, on the other hand, was caused when one media enterprise integrated within the electronic media to operate some other media enterprise, so a broadcaster would integrate to operate distribution services or publication or publication would integrate to operate broadcast media

Vertical integration included cross-ownership, that was, when a common entity would operate broadcast media as well as distribution service

Vertical integration was of concern for Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) because if a smaller group of owners controlled a large share of the market through broadcast and distribution it would cause concentration of ownership, which in turn meant reduction in diversity and plurality of content and the free flow of information.