The Fair Trade Commission(FTC) has rejected SK Telecom(SKT)’s bid to purchase the country’s leading cable TV operator CJ HelloVision.

The antitrust watchdog said on Monday that the consolidation of the two firms would hamper fair market competition.

The FTC assessed that if SKT's cable and Internet TV service unit SK Broadband merged with CJ HelloVision, the new entity would dominate in terms of market share in 21 out of 23 cable TV broadcasting blocs.

It said that without the presence of a strong competitor, it will become more likely for CJ HelloVision to raise cable TV fees.

The watchdog also expressed concerns that the takeover would lead to extremely harmful results from monopoly.