euro news_news 14/08/2015 09:23 Page 1
EC competition probe for Sky,
Hollywood studios
he European Commission has sent
a Statement of Objections - a
formal step in its investigations
into suspected violations of EU antitrust
rules - to Sky UK and six major US film
studios: Disney, NBCUniversal,
Paramount Pictures, Sony, Twentieth
Century Fox and Warner Bros.
The Commission takes the preliminary
view that each of the six studios and Sky UK
have bilaterally agreed to put in place
contractual restrictions that prevent Sky UK
from allowing EU consumers located
elsewhere to access, via satellite or online,
pay-TV services available in the UK and
Ireland. According to the EC, without these
restrictions, Sky UK would be free to decide
on commercial grounds whether to sell its
pay-TV services to such consumers
requesting access to its services, taking into
account the regulatory framework including, as
regards online pay-TV services, the relevant
national copyright laws.
If the Commission’s preliminary position
were to be confirmed, each of the companies
would have breached EU competition rules
prohibiting anti-competitive agreements. The
sending of a Statement of Objections does not
prejudge the outcome of the investigation.
EU Commissioner in charge of competition
policy Margrethe Vestager said: “European
consumers want to watch the pay-TV channels
of their choice regardless of where they live or
T
TVPlayer launches pay
OTT
With the aim of providing
an alternative pay-TV option
to Sky, BT TV and Virgin
Media, UK over-the-top
television platform TVPlayer
is launching subscription
service TVPlayer Plus.
TVPlayer Plus will be
priced from £4.99 (€7.05) per
month (with no contract) and
enables live streaming of 25+
premium television channels,
Additional channels are
expected to be announced.
The current TVPlayer
service, which offers over 55
free-to-air channels and has
6 EUROMEDIA
travel in the EU. Our investigation shows that
they cannot do this today, also because licensing
agreements between the major film studios and
Sky UK do not allow consumers in other EU
countries to access Sky’s UK and Irish pay-TV
services, via satellite or online. We believe that
this may be in breach of EU competition rules.
European broadcasters (Canal Plus of France,
Sky Italia of Italy, Sky Deutschland of Germany
and DTS of Spain). The Commission continues
to examine cross-border access to pay-TV
services in these Member States.
Some of the six major film studios named by
the EC responded to the EC’s ‘Statement of
Objections’, with Disney saying the
impact of the Commission’s analysis
was “destructive of consumer value”,
and confirming it would oppose the
proposed action vigorously. “Our
approach is one that supports local
creative industries, local digital and
broadcast partners and most
importantly consumers in every
country across the EU,” it contended.
“We are cooperating fully with the
European Commission’s investigation,”
commented a Warner Bros. spokesperson,
adding that it was “premature” to comment
further at this time. Similarly, NBCUniversal
confirmed that it had received the notice and
would “respond and cooperate” with the
European Commission. Fox, Sony and
Paramount declined to comment.
“The European Commission is examining
cross border access to pay TV services across a
number of member states. As part of its ongoing
enquiry, we have received a statement setting
out the commission’s preliminary views. We will
consider this and respond in due course,” Sky
said in a statement.
“Consumers
want to watch
the pay-TV
channels of their
choice regardless
of where they
are in the EU.
The studios and Sky UK now have the chance to
respond to our concerns,” she advised.
The Commission’s preliminary conclusion is
that, in the absence of convincing justification,
clauses granting ‘absolute territorial exclusivity’
to Sky UK and/or other broadcasters eliminate
cross-border competition between pay-TV
broadcasters and partition the internal market
along national borders, constituting a serious
violation of EU rules that prohibit
anticompetitive agreements.
The Commission previously also set out
concerns as regards licensing agreements
between the film studios and other major
over 500,000 regular users,
will remain free of charge,
although TVPlayer Plus
subscribers will benefit from
an enhanced viewing
experience.
TVPlayer is already
available on iOS, Android,
Amazon Fire
TV, Mac and
PC. Additional
devices
available at
the launch of
TVPlayer Plus will include
selected Smart TVs, the
Amazon Fire TV Stick and
Google Chromecast. TVPlayer
expects to announce its
availability on additional
Internet-connected devices
later in the year, including on
a prominent games console.
An app for Windows Phone is
also in development. UKTV
channels will be limited to
iOS, Android and PC.
TVPlayer is the first major
OTT platform in the UK to
combine an ad-supported
basic pack with optional pay
packs, with over 100
channels in total. Adam
Smith, founder and CEO of
live streaming service
Simplestream, the company
behind TVPlayer, noted that
TVPlayer had seen significant
success to date with over half
a million people now
watching TV over-the-top
each week on its service.
“Similar to what Netflix has
done for movies and Spotify
for music, TVPlayer Plus aims
to offer a simplified viewing
experience of traditional and
premium television content;
one which works with the
devices you already have and
lets you pause, modify or
cancel your subscription
whenever you l