euro news_news 26/02/2014 18:17 Page 3
EU pay-TV movie
inquiry
he European Commission is to
undertake a competition inquiry
into Hollywood studios’ licensing
deals with pay-TV broadcasters such as
BSkyB and Vivendi’s Canal Plus. The EC
has named Twentieth Century Fox,
Warner Bros, Sony Pictures,
NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures and
the largest European pay-TV
broadcasters such as BSkyB of the UK,
Canal Plus of France, Sky Italia of Italy,
Sky Deutschland of Germany and DTS of
Spain as subjects of the inquiry.
The inquiry, announced by Joaquin
Almunia, European Commissioner for
Competition, centres on contracts that
prevent EU broadcasters from selling
movies outside their home nation. “If
you subscribe to a pay-TV service in
Germany and you go to Italy for
holidays, you may not be able to view
the films offered by the service on
digital devices,” Almunia told reporters
at a Brussels press conference. “If you
T
live in Belgium and you want to
subscribe to a Spanish-speaking
service, you may not be able to
subscribe at all if there is absolute
territorial exclusivity.”
The inquiry will examine 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 EU’s
highest court ruled in 2011 that the
English Premier League’s geographic
restrictions on TV channels showing its
football matches breached competition
law, in a case triggered by a British pub
landlady who bought a cheaper Greek
decoder card to show games in the UK –
the so-called Murphy ruling.
The Commission has informed the
companies and the competition
authorities of the Member States that it
has opened proceedings in this case.
There is no legal deadline to
complete inquiries into anti-competitive
conduct. The duration of an antitrust
investigation depends on a number of
factors, including the complexity of the
case, the extent to which the
undertaking
concerned cooperates
with the Commission
and the
exercise of the rights of defence.
While the Commission wants to bring
movie licensing in line with the
licensing of football broadcasting rights
by removing absolute territorial
restrictions, it may take months or years
for the Commission to issue a decision.
A decision extending the application of
the Murphy ruling seems certain to be
appealed back up to the European
courts, which will also take the time to
arrive at a decision. The industry,
therefore, faces some years of
uncertainty regarding the permissible
limits of territorial
licensing of movie
rights in Europe, and
will need to r ]