By Sam Schechner
PARIS--France's Competition Authority gave the green light
Monday to French pay-TV giant Canal Plus for two takeovers, but
applied restrictions to the deals that are aimed at loosening the
Vivendi SA (VIV.PA) subsidiary's grip on the French television
marketplace.
In the first of the highly anticipated decisions, the authority
re-authorized a 2006 approval that it had invalidated last year
regarding a merger between Canal Plus's satellite distribution
service, CanalSat, with rival TPS. It also approved a deal for
Canal Plus to take over two free-to-air channels, Direct 8 and
Direct Star, owned by French industrialist Vincent Bollore, in a
deal first announced last year.
As part of the approval of the CanalSat-TPS deal, the
competition authority applied injunctions to the company for a
period of five years, including restrictions on the terms of movie
licenses Canal Plus can buy for its channels, and a requirement
that CanalSat carry a minimum of 55% channels that are
independently owned. Canal Plus's premium channels must also be
made available for third-party distributors, and the company cannot
sign exclusive deals for its Netflix-like service CanalPlay
Infinity.
Canal Plus said in a statement that it "disagrees with the
analysis taken by the authority, as well as with the injunctions it
has applied, adding that it will "without delay" seek to overturn
the decision.
For the Bollore deal, the commission said it negotiated
conditions with Canal Plus aimed at mitigating the "risks" of the
added "leverage" the deal would give Canal Plus. Those conditions
include a promise for negotiate deals for American TV shows and
movies separately between the two free channels and Canal Plus's
pay-TV channels.
Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com
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