The South African Competition Authority has published a list of topics on which it is awaiting comments from market participants as part of its Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry (MDPMI or Inquiry).
The Competition Commission of South Africa has released a Further Statement of Issues (FSOI) on which media and digital platform market participants have been asked to comment by January 22, 2024.
This follows a review of submissions including responses to the initial Statement of Issues (SOI) from media, digital platforms, publishers, broadcasters, and associations. Upon reviewing these initial submissions, the MDPMI has identified six additional themes that the FSOI will explore:
- The incorporation of constitutional interpretation into the Inquiry.
- The impact of mis- and disinformation.
- The emphasis on radio and TV broadcast news media (especially the public broadcaster).
- The measurement of news and its benefit to search and social media platforms.
- Revenue share arrangements between news media and digital platforms.
- The role and importance of transparency in platforms and Advertising Technology (Adtech) markets.
The MDPMI seeks detailed inputs on these themes to inform its process, evidence gathering, findings, and remedial actions.
The Competition Commission launched the MDPMI on 17 October 2023 in terms of section 43B(1)(a) of the Competition Act, 89 of 1998 (as amended) (the Act). The Inquiry is designed to scrutinise the distribution of media content on South African digital platforms and the Advertising technology (Adtech) markets that link buyers and sellers of digital advertising inventory.
As the Commission had previously explained, news organisations provide a significant portion of the advertising revenue that major search and social media platforms receive from traffic, engagement, and data collection.
It acknowledged that the rise of digital platforms has significantly impacted traditional news media organisations and their revenue streams in recent years. But it also maintained that there are reasons to believe that the existence of market features within digital platforms that distribute news media content restricts and impedes competition.
Per the regulator, the transition to digital news consumption and advertising has resulted in publishers “seeing a massive decline in advertising revenue and an increase in costs, as newsrooms need to devote resources to their digital presence.”
Additionally, its investigation into the online intermediation platform market revealed that Google's market dominance and business strategy have an impact on platform competition, making it more difficult for new and smaller platforms to become visible and attract users.
In July 2023, the Commission issued a report that included corrective measures for anti-competitive practices and the findings of an investigation into the competitive practices of some of the industry's leading platforms, including Google and Apple.
Sources: Techpoint Africa, Bizcommunity
