U.K. Scrutinizes Ticketmaster, Live Nation

(TheStreet) -- Combining the globe's biggest concert ticket pusher with the globe's biggest concert promoter seemed like such a perfect, vertically integrated making to many. Well, it was a little too perfect for British antitrust authorities.

Regulators announced a provisional ruling on the proposed deal on Thursday, saying in a statement that a merger between Ticketmaster(TKTM Quote) and Live Nation(LYV Quote) would more than likely keep another ticketing operation on the sideline. The U.K. Competition Committee explained that before the deal, Live Nation -- which has promotion deals with Jay-Z, U2 and Madonna -- struck a compact with CTS Eventim, the world's number two-ranked ticketing service.

But the Competition Committee said in a statement that the merger would create incentives for Live Nation "to impede CTS's entry into the UK ticketing market, in particular by minimizing the supply of its tickets to CTS," which could, among other things, result in higher prices for consumers.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster responded with their own statement, reiterating their commitment to the deal, while adding that the merger would create a more "efficient and effective" operation.

"But we must be clear about the challenges of the music industry, which is at a decisive crossroad. The recording industry is a shell of its former self. Where the recording industry was once the economic engine for the music business, it is live entertainment that is now the future of the music industry," the statement read, in part.

Before publishing its final report due in November, Christopher Clarke, deputy chairman of the Competition Committee, also added in a statement that the group will look at ways to address the competition loss and consult with U.S. authorities also looking into the deal.