John, this could have more of an effect...
EU urges Deutsche Telekom, Bertelsmann, Kirch to suspend digital TV venture
ÿ
11/05/97
AFX News
(c) 1997 by AFP-Extel News Ltd
ÿ
BRUSSELS (AFX) - Karel van Miert, the European competition commissioner, urged Deutsche Telekom AG, Bertelsmann AG and KirchGruppe to suspend operation of their joint digital television business until the European Commission has decided whether the venture breaches EU regulations, the commission said.
Mergers falling within the scope of EU regulations should be suspended until the commission has ruled on them, it said.
Failure to do so raises the prospect of fines and Van Miert told representatives of the three companies today that they would be well advised to stop such a violation immediately, the commission said.
It said Bertelsmann and Kirch intend to merge their digital TV activity while Beta Research will provide decoder technology -- the existing Kirch d-box -- and this aspect will be jointly controlled by the three partners.
Deutsche Telekom is providing the new Kirch-Bertelsmann merged operation with a technical platform for the cable network, it said.
According to recent press reports, Bertelsmann and Kirch have started to broadcasted their respective digital tv programmes Premiere and DF1, the commission said.
Van Miert met representatives of Kirch, Bertelsmann and Deutsche Telekom this morning at their request, the commission said.
A spokesman for van Miert said the commission considers Deutsche Telekom, KirchGruppe and Bertelsmann are taking a major risk in having launched their venture without formal notification to the commission.
It was "total craziness" for them to have made the venture operational without commission clearance, the spokesman said, denying there was any "tacit agreement" by the commission to allow the venture.
A commission spokesman said it does not have all the details of the companies' plans and it is not clear what aspects of the deal fall under the EU merger regulation and what fall under separate competition rules.
"As long as we don't have all the details we cannot even make the distinction," van Miert's spokesman said.
"The companies are taking a major risk" in launching the venture and there is certainly a merger regulation aspect to the case, he said.
Van Miert told the companies that he had asked his officials to investigate the start up in order to see "in view of possible action" to be taken by the commission, the commission said.
bm/nt/an/jlw NN
1226 05 Nov 97 |
