European Commission probes Euro pay-TV firms’ deals with Hollywood studios

Joseph O'Halloran | 14-01-2014


In what could shake up Europe’s video industry, the European Commission has opened formal antitrust proceedings regarding certain provisions in licensing agreements between US film studios and Europe’s largest pay-TV broadcasters.

The investigation will focus on the nature of the typical territory-exclusive deals struck throughout the European Union between studios including Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, NBCUniversal and Paramount Pictures, and operators including BSkyB, Canal Plus, Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland DTS of Spain.
In particular, the EC says that it will examine whether these provisions prevent broadcasters from providing their services across borders, for example by refusing potential subscribers from other Member States or blocking cross-border access to their services.
The EC added that it wishes to discover whether provisions of licensing arrangements for broadcasting by satellite or through online streaming between US film studios and the major European broadcasters, which grant to the latter "absolute territorial protection", may constitute an infringement of EU antitrust rules that prohibit anticompetitive agreements. The Commission has informed the companies and the competition authorities of the Member States that it has opened proceedings in this case.
Despite the huge potential ramifications of its investigation, the EC stressed that opening of proceedings in no way prejudges the outcome of the investigation; it only means that the Commission will treat the case as a matter of priority.