Media and Telecom Sector
Regulators and courts are heavily scrutinizing major media and telecom players, with California pausing settlement talks over Paramount's Warner Bros. deal and Meta facing massive penalties in a US child safety trial. Meanwhile, infrastructure and technology expansion continues as MTN advances a $6.2 billion IHS Towers acquisition and Starlink reapplies for Indian satellite coverage. In digital media, Instagram introduced a non-AI video editing tool while Australia banned fully AI-generated music from official charts.
MTN Group has secured conditional approval from Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission for its proposed $6.2 billion acquisition of IHS Holding Limited. The transaction values IHS at an enterprise value of approximately $6.2 billion, with MTN offering to buy the remaining roughly 75 percent stake it does not already own for $8.50 per share in cash. To clear competition concerns regarding critical shared network infrastructure, the Nigerian regulator mandated that MTN sell down up to 30 percent of the Nigerian component of the IHS business to local investors at market prices over time. MTN expects to complete the transaction in the second half of 2026, reversing a decade-old strategy of selling towers to free up capital and returning passive network assets directly to the operator's control.
Australia's peak music trade group is barring wholly AI-generated music from its official charts starting this week. The Australian Recording Industry Association introduced the ban following controversy over a local cover of Madonna's "Like a Prayer" that used generative AI tools and climbed to the country's top music charts. Under the new guidelines, tracks must be "substantially human made" to qualify, meaning humans must have written the song and performed the lead vocal and primary instruments. AI assistance remains permitted for supporting tasks like mastering, drum machines, and auto-tune, provided the services used are legal and raise no chart manipulation concerns. ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd said rewarding unlicensed AI output would undermine the recorded music industry.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta canceled a scheduled settlement meeting with Paramount on Monday, August 24, accusing the company of leaking confidential discussions and acting in bad faith. Bonta had been set to meet Paramount executives to explore terms for resolving a 12-state antitrust lawsuit seeking to block Paramount's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery; lawyers from both sides had met Friday to set an agenda. After that Friday meeting, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bonta was expected to demand Paramount divest select cable channels and keep its film studio operationally separate from Warner Bros. as settlement conditions. Paramount then leaked details of the Friday discussion to the press, misrepresenting what was discussed, Bonta said. "As soon as Paramount stops playing games and engages sincerely, my office is happy to meet again," Bonta stated, leaving the door open for future talks. The delay is costly: Paramount faces $7 million in daily "ticking fees" owed to Warner Bros. shareholders for every day after September 30 that the deal remains unclosed, and will have paid $1.3 billion in non-recoverable fees by the March trial date. Paramount has threatened to leave California and asked a judge to compel the states to post a $1.88 billion bond to cover deal-delay costs. CEO David Ellison has promised the combined studios would release 30 theatrical films annually, a commitment state regulators have dismissed as unenforceable. The trial is scheduled to begin March 2, 2027.