APN Outdoor - no connection with the radio and one-time newspaper business now changing its name to HT&E - has not given up hopes of a merger with rival oOh!media.

HT&E, which stands for 'Here There and Everywhere' is the proposed name for APN News & Media, which sold its Australian regional newspapers to News Corp Australia last year.

Its primary interests are now radio and the Adshel bus-shelter billboard business which it now owns outright.

A statement of issues on the proposed merger by regulator the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission focused on competition issues in the out-of-home advertising sector, but the would-be partners plan to argue that online advertising is now growing faster than the out-of-home segment.

A decision from the ACCC is now expected in early July.