The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has said it will launch an investigation on the sale of Hong Kong-owned Next Media Ltd’s Taiwanese operations to five potential buyers, following concern from the Alliance Against Media Monopoly and the Association of Taiwan Journalists that the deal might result in a monopoly.

It was also reported that the investigation will look into whether Next Media has been forced to sell its media outlets because of unfair tactics employed by the buyers to prevent its Next TV channels from being listed on the local cable TV services.

The five interested buyers are Tsai Eng-ming, Chairman of Want Want Group; Wong Wen-yuan, Chairman of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG); Jeffery Koo Jr., son of Chinatrust Financial Holding Chairman Jeffery Koo Sr; Lee Tai-hung, Chairman of Taiwan Fire and Marine Insurance Co. (TFMI); and James Lee, Chairman of Lung Yen Life Service Co.

FTC spokesman Sun Li-chun told local media, “The Want Want China Times Group already controls 20 percent of the nation’s news channels, nearly 30 percent of cable television services and 12 percent of the newspaper and Internet news services. If it merges with Next Media, it will become a monopolistic monster.”

The FTC has notified the five companies to file a report to the Commission for approval to transfer Next Media’s share to themselves, due to the deal’s nature as a merger of the joint enterprises, according to the Fair Trade Act.