The Competition Commission on Monday kicked off its month-long series of hybrid public hearings into its Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry (MDPMI), chaired by chief economist James Hodge, assisted by panel member and media veteran Paula Fray.

More than 40 stakeholders, including mainstream and community media, broadcasters, associations, think tanks, social media platforms and advertising brokers, besides others, will present their views during the hearings, which are scheduled to run from March 4 until March 25, virtually and at the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s Pretoria campus.

This followed the extension of invitations to over 50 potential stakeholders based on their written and oral submissions.

During the first week, the Competition Commission will hear from the South African National Editors Forum; the Association of Independent Publishers; the International Fund for Public Interest Media; Media24; Moneyweb; the Centre for Journalism and Liberty; the Gordan Institute of Business Sciences’ Media Leadership Think Tank; Independent Media/Isolezwe; Data Science for Social Impact Research Group; Med8 Media; the National Community Radio Forum; Mpumalanga Mirror; Maroela Media; Limpopo Mirror; Naledi News; Izwe Lomphakathi; the South African Broadcasting Corporation; Arena Holdings; and Daily Maverick.

Other confirmed participants during the month-long hearings include SOS Support Public Broadcasting; Caxton; eMedia; Primedia; and Kagiso Media Radio, besides others.

According to the Competition Commission, major players in the digital space that have confirmed participation include Google Search and News; YouTube; Google AdTech; Microsoft Bing, including Copilot; Microsoft Start; and Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp).

Ad brokers and advertising technology (Adtech) service providers will also be appearing including GroupM and Dentsu, besides others.

“The inquiry is yet to confirm attendance from X Corp and TikTok, important platforms in the social media space, but provisions have been made for them in the public hearing schedule,” the Commission said in a statement.

The MDPMI was initiated in terms of Section 43B(1)(a) of the Competition Act, No 89 of 1998, as amended, to investigate the distribution of media content on South Africa’s digital platforms, including search, social media and news aggregation platforms, and the Adtech markets that connect buyers and sellers of digital advertising inventory.

The inquiry was officially launched in October after publishing the final terms of reference in September.

According to a statement issued by the Competition Commission, the MDPMI has gathered extensive information from a wide range of industry stakeholders from submissions made to the Statement of Issues (SOI), Further Statement of Issues (FSOI) and Requests for Information (RFI).

The primary objective of the public hearings is to provide a platform for direct engagement between the inquiry panel and stakeholders, presenting another opportunity for stakeholders to provide their perspectives on some of the issues raised in the SOI, FSOI and aspects of the RFIs, as well as provide their views on non-confidential submissions made by other stakeholders in response to the Inquiry.

Stakeholders will also be provided with the opportunity to highlight any issues not currently known to the inquiry if these concerns fall within the defined scope.