Now that we are in the domain of live music, a story I could have sworn we reported on last week but turns out we didn't. So we'll report on it now. No refunds for the oversight incidentally. The UK's Competition Commission has said that if live music conglom Live Nation wants to take a majority stake in gig venue owners the Academy Music Group (which they do) that they'll have to agree to sell off some of AMG's London venues to third parties so they don't become too dominant in the capital's live music sector.
That ruling has been made because the Commission believe that if Live Nation was to acquire all of the Academy's venues (which include the Brixton Academy), in addition to the London concert halls they already own (which includes the Hammersmith Apollo), it would significantly reduce competition in the live sector, and may therefore cause ticket prices to rise and the quality of venues to decline.
Live Nation announced back in the summer that it plans to acquire a 53% in the Academy Music Group, but that move has faced criticism from various sources, especially independent gig promoters who fear that a venue market dominated by Live Nation, themselves concert promoters, would make it much harder for the independents to compete.
However, Live Nation have said they will lobby against the Competition Commission's proposal and continue to fight for approval for their Academy Music Group bid without any forced sales. Commenting on the Commission's initial ruling Live Nation UK president Paul Latham told reporters: "We're disappointed that the Commission did not take into account the huge volume of evidence and argument that we submitted".