On Friday 9 November, the European Commission invited interested parties to submit their opinions on the commitments offered by The Walt Disney Company (Disney) to address the concerns of the European Commission in the framework of its investigation into the cross-border provision of pay-TV services.
This consultation echoes the statement of objections sent to Sky UK and six cinema studios, including Disney, in July 2015 (see EUROPE 11365).
Readers may recall that in this case, the Commission is looking at bilateral agreements to license film productions as pay-TV content between these studios and Sky UK, as these agreements limit the capacity to broadcast these programmes to the residents of the United Kingdom and Ireland alone. Furthermore, some of the agreements prevent the studios from entering into contracts for Ireland and the UK with broadcasters other than Sky UK.
The Commission had concerns that this would eliminate cross-border competition between pay-TV broadcasters and expressed specific concerns with regard to the agreement between Disney and Sky UK.
Disney then proposed a number of commitments over five years, in particular agreeing not to introduce a clause geographically limiting programme broadcasts. The Commission notes that these commitments are similar to those suggested by Paramount in 2016 in a similar case, and which were approved (see EUROPE 11601, 11538).
Interested parties have a month to send in their comments to the institution. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)