Press release

TV 2 has the only licence to broadcast commercial national television in Norway[1]. On 20 December 2002 Kanal4 was granted one of two licences to broadcast commercial national radio in Norway. Kanal4 is not yet operative but will start its transmissions as from 1 January 2004. On 1 August 2003 TV 2 bought 34 percent of the shares in Kanal4 and got an option to buy up to 51 percent of the shares in the radio channel.

The Media Ownership Authority has decided not to intervene against the acquisition because the Authority does not find it probable that Kanal4 will reach a share of the audience giving TV 2 a significant ownership position in the national radio marked.

Another result of the acquisition is that   TV 2 and its biggest shareholder Schibsted gain ownership interests in one additional media sector. The Media Ownership Authority has examined the multimedia aspects of the acquisition, but has concluded that this does not constitute a significant ownership position according to the Media Ownership Act.

According to the Media Ownership Act an owner controlling about one third of the total national radio audience has a significant ownership position. If the owner also has ownership interests in other media sectors, this threshold may be moderately scaled down. Because the law does not contain special regulation of cross media ownership, only minor adjustments of the national threshold are allowed. The need for clear regulation of cross media ownership should be taken into consideration in the coming revision of The Media Ownership Act.

In this case it is difficult to establish a significant ownership position, as Kanal4 has not yet started broadcasting and therefore has no audience. According to the Media Ownership Authority such situations should be taken into consideration in the revision of the Media Ownership Act. Alternatively the Ministry could remedy such situations when granting licences.

The Media Ownership Authority has collected assessments of Kanal4s probable share of the national audience from Kanal4/TV 2, the other commercial national radio channel P4 and the market research company MMI. All these reports are withhold from publicity.

The Media Ownership Authority decision (in Norwergian) will later be available on: www.eierskapstilsynet.no.

Press contact: Director General Sigve Gramstad (email: sg@eierskapstilsynet.no) or Deputy Director General Gudbrand Guthus (email: gg@eierskapstilsynet.no), tel. +47 22 47 68 80.