In a relatively rare legal victory, France’s Canal+ Group has secured a favourable ruling from the country’s competition watchdog following a complaint by Spain’s Mediapro that it had abused its dominant position in the pay TV market. The complaint relates to the period when Mediapro held the bulk of rights to French top-tier football – […]
French competition body, the Autorité de la Concurrence, has rejected discrimination complaints from pay TV broadcasters Canal+ and beIN Sports regarding the award of live Ligue 1 broadcast rights to Amazon last year. The Autorité cited lack of sufficient evidence that rights holder the LFP had acted improperly in doing the deal. Amazon secured the […]
France’s competition watchdog, the Autorité de la Concurrence, has decided to open a ‘phase 2’ in-depth probe into the planned merger of commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6. The regulator said that it had decided there was a need for a more in-depth investigation following its initial probe into the views of the parties’ suppliers, competitors […]
France’s competition watchdog, the Autorité de la Concurrence, has launched a procedure to sanction commercial broadcaster M6 over non-compliance with obligations undertaken at the time of the creation of Salto, the joint SVOD offering of the broadcaster, TF1 and France Télévisions. According to the watchdog, M6 has failed to respect a commitment to provide a […]
French and international service provider Iliad Telecom, parent of Free, is appealing for the European Commission to probe the planned merger of commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6, according to a report by financial daily Les Echos. According to the paper, pay TV operator Canal+ is considering joining Iliad in its move to bring the merger […]
The French competition watchdog, the Autorité de la Concurrence, has rejected a complaint by OTT TV provider Molotov that commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6 colluded to freeze the platform out as a distributor of their channels in favour of Salto, the planned joint streaming venture between them and public broadcaster France Télévisions. According to Molotov, […]
France’s competition watchdog, the Autorité de la Concurrence, has released service provider Altice from a number of conditions imposed on its at the time of its acquisition of SFR and its combination with the former Numericable cable network. Recognising that rivals including Orange have deployed fibre networks in key parts of the country since the […]
The major French broadcasters involved in the Salto subscription video-on-demand project have proposed significant concessions in a bid to secure a green light from the country’s competition watchdog, according to a report by financial daily Les Echos. The paper says it has seen a confidential document that details some 20 commitments made to the Autorité […]
After months of delay, French subscription video-on-demand joint venture Salto is finally in the hands of the country’s competition watchdog, the Autorité de la Concurrence. The regulator has until July 19 to reach a decision on the project, a JV between public broadcaster France Télévisions and commercial broadcasters TF1 and M6 that is designed to […]
Restrictive rules governing the distribution of content will kill off French fiction in the international market if they remain unchanged, according to Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada, who has blamed France’s competition regulator for a disastrous fall in subscriber numbers at the pay TV operator’s SVOD service CanalPlay. Saada, addressing a French senate committee last week, […]
