Paramount Offers EU Concessions on Sky UK Licensing Deals
April 22 2016 - 7:20AM
Dow Jones News
BRUSSELS—Paramount Pictures has offered a series of concessions
to satisfy European Union concerns about contracts signed with Sky
UK Ltd. to license their films, the EU's antitrust authorities said
on Friday.
The EU last July took aim at Hollywood, filing formal charges
against six major U.S. film studios and pay-TV broadcaster Sky U.K.
over alleged illegal licensing agreements. The contracts see these
studios license their output of films over a certain period for
pay-TV to Sky UK.
The EU accused the companies of violating competition laws by
using clauses that restrict access to Sky's services outside the
U.K. and Ireland, in a move that could recast how pay-TV is sold
and viewed in Europe.
Viacom Inc.-owned Paramount Pictures, offered several
concessions to address EU concerns.
EU antitrust authorities will now seek feedback from interested
parties on the concessions. If it accepts them, the concessions
will be made legally binding on Paramount.
Among the concessions offered, Paramount said it would not
impose contractual obligations when licensing a film to a pay-TV
broadcaster in the European Economic Area which stop that
broadcaster making the film available to consumers in another
country.
Paramount said they would not seek to bring an action before a
court or tribunal to enforce a violation of current contracts which
stop broadcasters making a film available to consumers in another
country.
These commitments would apply for five years and cover standard
pay-TV services and subscription video-on-demand services. They
would also cover both online services and satellite broadcast
services.
The six studios are Walt Disney Co.'s Disney, Comcast Corp.'s
NBCUniversal, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, Sony Corp.'s Sony
Pictures Entertainment Inc., 21 Century Fox's Twentieth Century Fox
and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Entertainment.
21st Century Fox Inc. was until 2013 part of the same company as
The Wall Street Journal owner News Corp. Sky is 39%-owned by 21st
Century Fox.
The charges came amid a broader push by the European Union to
eradicate barriers to a single market for digital services in the
region. Regulators are focusing in particular on eliminating
"geo-blocking," where companies restrict access to films or other
online content outside a particular licensed territory.
Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 22, 2016 07:05 ET (11:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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