Antitrust Watchdog Conditionally Approves Tving-Wavve Merger

South Korea: South Korea’s antitrust regulator announced its conditional approval of the merger between streaming platforms Tving and Wavve, mandating that both companies maintain their current subscription prices until the end of next year.

According to Ethiopian News Agency, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) requires the two local over-the-top (OTT) service providers to uphold their existing pricing plans through December 31, 2026. In the event that the merged entity introduces a new integrated service, it must either continue offering the current pricing plans or establish similar-tier plans at comparable price levels until the same deadline.

The merger has raised concerns about potential anti-competitive effects, with critics warning that the integration could diminish market competition and lead to implicit price increases. The FTC highlighted that eliminating separate subscription options and offering only a bundled plan could raise costs for consumers.

Furthermore, the FTC pointed out that Tving and Wavve hold exclusive content, including live broadcast channels and professional baseball coverage, which limits consumers’ ability to switch to competing platforms. An FTC official stated that the corrective measures aim to prevent potential price hikes from this horizontal merger between OTT operators while safeguarding subscribers and preserving the merger’s intent to enhance content production and acquisition capabilities.

Industry data indicates that Netflix led the domestic OTT market last year with a 33.9 percent share, followed by Tving with 21.1 percent, Coupang Play at 20.1 percent, and Wavve at 12.4 percent.