Financial television station CNBC is to close its Hong Kong headquarters, leaving about 150 staff unemployed.
CNBC, a subsidiary of American television giant NBC, and rival Dow Jones' Asia Business News (ABN) yesterday announced a long-awaited merger.
CNBC Asia in Hong Kong will cease to exist - apart from some operational responsibilities - and ABN will take the CNBC brand name.
The Government and merger partners sought to downplay speculation that high operating costs and fears of censorship had driven the station offshore.
But analysts said the outcome would have been different had stringent regulations on ABN's satellite licence not been imposed by Hong Kong, a factor which led it to open in Singapore.
Dow Jones International president Karen Elliott House said it had not been possible to 'uplink' from Hong Kong because of a monopoly.
'This is a decision that had nothing to do with censorship or fear of China,' she said.