Last night the ComCom said in its statement of preliminary issues that it would undertake a two-stage assessment of the authorisation application; firstly to establish whether the commission had jurisdiction to authorise it and secondly to assess whether the public interest benefit meant the authorisation should be granted.
The NPA has submitted that the proposed arrangement would not likely give rise to any detriments and the public benefit justified authorisation being granted.
It also said the arrangement was likely to achieve more efficient outcomes due to the benefits of having a greater levels of resourcing and expertise through pooled resources.
"Furthermore, NPA submits the proposed arrangement is likely to address bargaining power imbalances by increasing the bargaining power of participating news media companies in negotiations with the digital platforms."
The NPA also submitted that any agreements entered into with the digital platforms as a result of proposed arrangement was likely to achieve a more competitive outcome with participating media companies more fairly compensated for the content they produce.
The commission said that it would be testing NPA's submissions.
"We will also consider if the proposed arrangement could have any other effects on competition that would create likely benefits or detriments."
The competition regulator said it would also consider how the arrangement could affect competition between news media companies in the relevant markets and competition between participating news media companies and those outside the arrangement such as Crown-owned or established news media companies.
Discovery, TVNZ and RNZ have all expressed concern in their submissions that they were excluded from the application for collective bargaining.
In his submission, RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson said he saw merit in allowing news media to have an option to bargain collectively with the major tech platforms, but felt the wording in the application excluded some news media.
"This seems arbitrary and poses the risk of a 'closed shop' being created that would potentially disadvantage those not allowed to join the collective," Thompson said.
Those sentiments were mirrored in the TVNZ submission, which stressed that television advertising revenue has also been hit hard by Google and Facebook.
TVNZ has called on the commission to extend the collective bargaining beyond members of the News Publishers' Association to include other news providers.
While international media giant Discovery, which owns the Newshub brand in the local market, said there was no good reason why Discovery NZ had been excluded from the proposed arrangement.
The ComCom said it would also consider the likelihood that the New Zealand news media companies would be supported by public funding in the long term and that a bargaining code similar to Australia could enable the media to successfully enter into agreements with the digital platforms with outcomes that were reasonably comparable to the proposed arrangement.
It will decide by June 9 whether or not to authorise the proposed arrangement although it warned this date could come forward or be pushed out as its investigation progressed.
"Prior to making our final decision, we will publish a draft determination and seek submissions on the draft. The draft determination sets out our preliminary view on whether we are likely to grant an authorisation, and the reasons for that view."
