Mergers and acquisitions in TV broadcasting and distribution: Challenges for competition, industrial and media policy

•M&A activity in TV broadcasting and distribution industries is heating up.•Consolidation wave produces global powerhouses that control entire TV value chain.•Competition policy has imposed behavioural and structural remedies.•Industrial and media-specific policies are virtually absent from policy agendas.•Call for a more integrated policy approach towards M&A in TV markets.

This article focuses on the recent wave of M&A activity, both vertical and horizontal, in TV broadcasting and distribution industries, and discusses the implications of M&A activity for competition, industrial and media policymaking. Moreover, it aspires to set a forward-looking perspective on the regulation of M&A in the TV industry. It is argued that while EU competition policy has difficulties to fully grasp anti-competitive effects resulting from vertical M&A activity in particular, industrial and media-specific policies dealing with the creation of an economically and culturally sustainable, European broadcasting and distribution sector are virtually absent from national and European policy agendas. It is particular in the latter two domains of policymaking that policy action is necessary.