CANBERRA, Australia—Australia’s competition watchdog on Nov. 8 approved the proposed merger of television network Nine Entertainment and newspaper publisher Fairfax Media into a media giant to be known only as Nine.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims said the merger, proposed in July, reduced the number of corporations focused on Australian news from five to four. Nine has been Australia’s most popular free-to-air television network in recent decades and Fairfax had traditionally been a quality newspaper publisher in Australia and New Zealand.
