Brussels, 27/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised the creation of a joint venture between the French companies Accenture and Lagardère in the field of interactive television. The joint undertaking, StudioCo, will be specialised in consulting and development services for interactive television editors, initially in France. Given the current limited activities of Lagardère and Accenture in this sector and the presence of other, vertically integrated competitors, the Commission considers that the operation will only entail limited overlaps of the activities of the parties on this market. It also stresses that there is no indication that the parties' activities in certain neighbouring or downstream sectors (especially Lagardère's controlling interest in Canal Satellite) can raise competition concerns.