미디어시장의 기업결합규제와 신문.방송의 겸영규제

Abstract

This article is intended to compare the sector-specific regulation and the competition advocacy in the media sector and to consider whether the regulation by sector-specific agencies may be replaced with the supervision under competition authority. For that aim, this article provides description about the regulation on the ownership of newspaper companies and/or broadcasting business companies under the Act on the Freedom of Newspapers, etc. and Guarantee of their Functions (Wholly Amended by Act No. 7369, Jan. 27, 2005; Amended by Act No. 7655, Aug. 4, 2005)(hereinafter “Newspaper Act”) and the Broadcasting Act(Wholly Amended by Act No. 6139, January, 2000; Amended by Act No. 8101, December 28, 2006) in Chapter Ⅱ: - The Newspaper Act provides that any daily and any news agency provided for in the News Agency Development Act shall be prohibited from being concurrently run, and such daily and such news agency shall be prohibited from concurrently running any broadcasting business that performs the general programming or the professional programming on reports under the Broadcasting Act (Art. 15 (2)). - Anyone who holds not less than 1/2 of shares or equities that are issued by any corporation that runs any daily, any news agency or any broadcasting business shall be prohibited from acquiring or holding not less than 1/2 of shares or equities that are issued by any corporation that runs any other daily or any other news agency(Newspaper Act Art. 15 (3)). - And any company that belongs to the conglomerate business group and its affiliate may not acquire or hold more than 1/2 of shares or equities that are issued by any corporation that runs any daily newspaper or any news agency(Newspaper Act Art. 15 (3)). - The Broadcasting Act sets the ceiling on the total amount of shareholding in a terrestrial broadcasting business operator and a program providing business operator engaged in general programing or specialized programing of news reports (Art. 8 (2)). - And the act prohibits for conglomerate companies to run a terrestrial broadcasting business and/or a program providing business engaged in general programming or specialized programming of news reports, or to own the relevant stocks or equity shares(Broadcasting Act Art. 8 (3)). - And a corporation operating a daily newspaper or news correspondence under the Registration, etc. of Periodicals Act, and a corporation operating a conglomerate and the affiliated companies thereof may not own the stocks or equity shares with respect to the CATV broadcasting business operators and satellite broadcasting business operators, and the satellite broadcasting business operators, respectively, in excess of 33/ 100 of the total stocks or equity shares of the relevant broadcasting business operators, including the stocks or equity shares owned by such corporations and the specially related persons(Broadcasting Act Art. 8 (4)). - A terrestrial broadcasting business operator, a CATV broadcasting business operator and a satellite broadcasting business operator shall not mutually and concurrently operate their business or own their stocks or equity shares in excess of the scope prescribed by the Presidential Decree in consideration of the market shares or the number of business operators, etc.: Provided, that a terrestrial broadcasting business operator and a CATV broadcasting business operator shall not mutually and concurrently operate the business or own their stocks or equity shares(Broadcasting Act Art. 8 (5)). - A CATV broadcasting business operator, a program providing busi- ness operator and a signal transmission network business operator shall not mutually and concurrently operate their business or own their stocks or equity shares in excess of the scope as prescribed by the Presidential Decree, in consideration of the market shares or the number of business operators, etc. (Broadcasting Act Art. 8 (6)). - A terrestrial broadcasting business operator, a CATV broadcasting business operator and a satellite broadcasting business operator shall not concurrently operate another terrestrial broadcasting business con- ducting digital multimedia broadcasting, another CATV broadcasting business and another satellite broadcasting business respectively, or own their relevant stocks or equity shares in excess of the scope prescribed by the Presidential Decree in consideration of the market shares or the number of business operators, etc. (Broadcasting Act Art. 8 (7)). - A program providing business operator shall not concurrently operate another program providing business or own its stocks or equity shares in excess of the scope as determined by the Presidential Decree in consideration of the market share or the number of business operators, etc. (Broadcasting Act Art. 8 (8)). And besides, political parties shall not own the stocks or equity shares of a broad- casting business operator(Broadcasting Act Art. 8 (9)). In this article, Chapter Ⅲ reviews the prevention of accumulation of media licenses leading to dominance by a handful of companies in UK, the newspaper/broadcast ownership rules in US, the regulation of concentration of media enterprises in EU and in Germany. In Chapter Ⅳ, this article provides the backgrounds of U.S. newspaper/broadcast ownership rules and discusses some competitive issues, such as the defining relevant market in the media sector; comparing the public interest and the competition as objectives ; Diffrence among the market concentration, the aggregate concentration, the ownership concentration in the context of the coverage of the competiton law; the necessity of adjusting the asserted overlapping powers. In the ends, this article insists that the problems of the ownership concentration or the corporate governance in an individual media company can be solved not solely by the competition law but by media law, namely the Newspaper Act and the Broadcasting Act. The enforcement of competition law in the media sector will be focused the mergers between media companies. Under current situation, the regulation by sector-specific agencies may not be replaced with the supervision by competition authority. Because each regulation has its own adequate purpose. And the competition authority seems to be able to advise and provide expertise to the sector-specific regulators.