Background: Seven West Media is the company behind one of Australia's largest TV broadcasters, Channel 7. And Prime Media Group own Prime7, a regional broadcaster.

What happened: There's a bitta history here. In 1999, Prime became an 'affiliate' of Seven Network - it started broadcasting some of Channel Seven's major events like the Olympics and AFL Grand Finals as well as shows like Big Brother and Home and Away.

What else: Before 2017, they weren't allowed to merge because of the 'reach rule'. But in 2019, Seven tried to buy Prime but shareholders of Prime blocked the deal. Now, it looks like the pair have come to a new agreement for Seven to buy Prime for $132 million.

So what's the key learning?

💡The 'reach rule' meant that any one person or media company was not able to reach more than 60% of the population. In 1992, this was increased to 75%. It was meant to help Aussies experience some diversity on their screens, and not be limited to one "voice".

💡The effect of this rule was that networks were broken into metro (Seven, Nine and Ten) and regional (Prime, WIN) networks. In 2017, the Liberal government scrapped the rule.

💡The upside is that regional broadcasters now have access to more resources. But the downside is that Australia’s media landscape is already pretty concentrated. And now, the combined Prime and Seven will reach more than 90% of the population each month.