By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Nordic telecoms operator Telia's close to $1 billion bid for Bonnier Broadcasting faces a full-scale EU antitrust investigation after failing to address competition concerns, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Telia announced the deal, worth 9.2 billion Swedish crowns ($954 million), in July last year as the company looks to expand its media business as telecoms groups spend heavily to capitalize on changing television viewing habits.
Owned by a prominent Swedish family, Bonnier's brands include Sweden's biggest commercial broadcaster, TV4, and streaming service C More and Finnish MTV. It competes with state broadcaster SVT.
Telia offered concessions to the European Commission last month but these were not sufficient to allay regulatory worries, the sources said.
The EU competition enforcer and Telia declined to comment.
The Commission is set to announce the opening of its in-depth investigation on Friday, the sources added, giving it 90 working days to examine the deal.
The deal is politically sensitive for Sweden since the government owns 37 percent of Telia.