Singapore seeks to widen IMDA oversight on media stake buys

Immaterial transactions would no longer need prior written approval.

Singapore has tabled amendments that will expand the regulatory oversight of the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), including requiring approvals for media sector acquisitions involving 30% of equity interests.

Key amendments to the IMDA Act include requiring approval from IMDA over transactions that result in a person acquiring 30% or more equity interests or voting power in a regulated person (RP), effective control over an RP’s operations, or a person taking over the RP’s media business.

Currently, only acquisitions, mergers, or consolidations between RPs or between RPs and ancillary media services require IMDA’s prior approval.

Another key amendment will enable IMDA to issue a direction to prevent what it perceives as unfair market conduct in the media sector or for the protection of customers.

As of present, IMDA can only provide directions if there is non-compliance with competition or consumer protection obligations under the IMDA Act and the Telecom and Media Competition Code (TMCC).

Another amendment aims to streamline treatment of immaterial transactions. Instead of requiring written approval from IMDA, RPs simply need to inform IMDA of such transactions.

Amendments will also be made to the Telecommunications Act for alignment purposes, IMDA said.

Follow the link for more news on

Infocomm Media Development Authority

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia