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| German cartel office investigates Pro7, RTL http://www.fta-n-more.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=117 |
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| Author: | Prodigy [ Fri May 21, 2010 12:13 pm ] |
| Post subject: | German cartel office investigates Pro7, RTL |
Germany's federal cartel office, Bundeskartellamt, raided the headquarters of TV groups RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 on May 19. The investigation is based on suspicions that Germany's two dominant commercial TV broadcasters have allied for a encryption pact unlawfully. Bundeskartellamt is investigating whether there is a pact which infringes federal anti-trust law by jointly encrypting the digital signals of the broadcasters’ free-TV channels and which imposes usage restrictions on their programmes. Based on a court order, 23 officials of the cartel office and 13 policemen took part in the action. RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 confirmed the raid, but did not want to give further details. “The cartel office has been investigating with regards to programme distribution for a long time. We don't comment any further on the ongoing processing,” said an RTL spokesman. A spokesperson of the cartel office said that there was “a preliminary suspicion of a violation of anti-trust law”, explaining that the affected companies are suspected to have formed a pact to make their digital free-TV channels only available in encrypted form and against payment of reception fees and to impose usage restrictions, for example regarding recording and copying programmes and the prevention of fast-forwarding during commercial breaks. The TV groups face severe penalty payments if the regulatory authority's suspicions are confirmed. Several years ago, RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 initiated a joint attempt to encrypt their digital free-TV channels on the Astra satellite system at 19.2° East as part of the Dolphin/entavio project. After a veto of the cartel office, the plans were not pursued any further. When the two TV groups launched their new encryption thrust as part of the Astra platform HD+ in November 2009 on which the HDTV versions of their free-TV channels are encrypted and covered with usage restrictions, the cartel office - to the surprise of many observers – did not initiate an investigation despite allegations by consumer protectors and critical industry voices that this was simply “entavio reloaded”. It is not known whether the raid concerns the broadcasters' coordinated actions regarding the old entavio/Dolphin project, the HD+ platform or a new approach towards encryption. The cartel office did not respond when asked about this matter. |
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| Author: | Prodigy [ Fri May 21, 2010 12:14 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: German cartel office investigates Pro7, RTL |
I think the same should be done for Encrypted PBS, NASA, ION, etc. channels. |
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