Brussels, 15/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the spokesperson for Commissioner Monti confirmed that an investigation into Hollywood and a number of European pay television companies was being carried out over sales conditions and the re-transmission rights for films on the television. Amelia Torres explained that two enquiries were in fact being carried out (which are at a completely preliminary stage) and which were launched on the initiative of the Commission itself without any complaints having being lodged. At the end of 2001, the Commission launched an investigation into the length of contracts concluded between Hollywood studios and a European pay-television company because it was afraid that exclusive long-term agreements would block the arrival of new companies onto the pay-television market. On this occasion the Commission discovered the existence of a clause whereby pay-television companies that concluded an agreement with a Hollywood studio had agreed to pay an identical price to all the studios in order to gain film re-transmission rights. This information prompted the Commission to open a more general investigation into several European companies that had concluded contracts with studios from Hollywood. The Commission spokesperson stressed that the Commission feared that this clause would reduce competition between studios from Hollywood resulting in artificial price increases. The spokesperson refused to give the name and nationality of the companies implicated in the investigation but the Financial Times has named them. These include the British company BskyB, Canal + from France, Telepiù from Italy and Sogecable from Spain.
European Parliament Plenary Session