News story: Media intelligence merger could raise competition concerns

Nielsen and Ebiquity gather, collate and analyse information on the advertising activity of companies.

Both companies are the only suppliers of this intelligence across a broad range of UK media. While they face some competition from firms offering this service for digital advertising, no firm competes with Nielsen and Ebiquity for detailed intelligence across all UK media channels.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) therefore found competition may be significantly reduced if the merger went ahead as planned.

The CMA also found that the companies are each other’s closest competitor in the supply of intelligence on international advertising to UK customers, and that they face only limited competition from other suppliers for this service.

Nielsen and Ebiquity have until 20 June to offer a solution to the competition concerns raised by the CMA, otherwise it will go ahead with a more in-depth (phase 2) investigation.