News Corporation Obtains Phase I Clearance for TV Merger

Cleary Gottlieb successfully represented News Corporation in the acquisition of sole control over leading German Pay TV operator Premiere, active in the provision of Pay TV services in a number of German-speaking areas in the European Community.

The European Commission cleared News Corp’s acquisition of Premiere subject to a set of commitments following an extended phase I investigation of the possible effects of the transaction deriving from News Corp’s activities on the markets for the provision of audiovisual content and Pay TV technical services in the German-speaking area and Premiere’s downstream activities in the provision of Pay TV services in Germany and in Austria.