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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DiViT who wrote (30248)	3/4/1998 3:45:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Canal Plus(Cube customer) gets competition. Canal Plus will sell them settops, if they decide to buy.................................... FOCUS-EU to clear French digital TV platform TPS 01:48 p.m Mar 02, 1998 Eastern By Amelia Torres BRUSSELS, March 2 (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Monday it planned to clear French digital television platform Television Par Satellite (TPS), owned by French holding group Suez-Lyonnaise des Eaux SA and TV company M6 Numerique, among others. The European Union's competition watchdog said it would allow TPS to be the sole digital platform to distribute French popular TV channels TF1, France 2, France 3 and M6 but for three years only, with the possibility of an extension if justified. The Commission's positive stance on TPS contrasts with a tough approach regarding similar plans in Germany and Britain to launch digital television. It gave third parties a month to comment before taking a final decision. ''Since the creation of TPS has a positive effect on competition in that it gives rise to a new operator, the Commission proposes to take a favourable attitude towards the notified agreement,'' it said in a notice published in the European Union's Official Journal. ''As for the provision concerning exclusive distribution of general-interest channels on TPS, it intends to grant an exemption for three years with the possibility of extension in the event that the scope of the exclusivity is reduced by the French legislator,'' it said. The general-interest channels were identified as TF1, France 2, France 3 and M6. Canal Plus, France's successful pay-TV company which has its own digital platform called CanalSatellite, has criticised the exclusive arrangements. The French parliament is expected to look into the issue as part of a debate on a new broadcasting bill. The TPS deal was filed for EU clearance in October 1996, the Commission said. Other TPS shareholders include TF1, France's biggest private channel, and France Telecom. Bertelsmann and the Kirch group in Germany and British Telecommunications and BSkyB in Britain have had their plans delayed by the Commission, which fears they will create dominant positions in the nascent digital TV market in both countries. TPS does not appear to present any of the competition problems triggered by these two deals which revolve mainly around the control of set-top decoder technology and the absence of other strong competitors. Canal Plus has agreed to make its decoders available to competitors. The Commission's position could change if TPS and CanalSatellite were no longer competing against each other, as proposed by CanalSatellite in recent months. The offer has been rejected by TPS's chairman Cyrille de Peloux. ''There have been discussions in France to create a monopoly in a quite open and shameless way,'' European Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert told a European Parliament committee early in February. Van Miert warned he would fight private monopolies with the same strength he has been showing against public monopolies in the telecommunications and the energy sectors. ^REUTERS@