On 21 November the Competition Commission (CC) published a notice of ‘Further Possible Remedies’ after having received a number of comments in relation to its provisional findings of 19 August, including some alternative remedy proposals. The CC sets out the following two further remedies:
- ‘requiring Sky to provide, to any qualifying over-the-top (OTT) movie service provider, access to its consumers who are currently able to receive its Anytime+ SVOD content (ie those consumers with a Sky Ethernet enabled set-top box (STB)); and
- a supplementary remedy, requiring Sky to publish the expiry dates of its contracts relating to [first subscription
pay TV window] FSPTW rights with the six major studios, so as to increase the ability for rival bidders to engage in timely negotiations.’
Both of these remedies aim to lower barriers to the acquisition of FSPTW rights and thereby encourage competition with Sky in the acquisition and distribution of FSPTW movie content. The CC seeks evidence and views on these two remedies.
DotEcon is currently providing support to a media client in respect of this CC investigation.