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Vivendi’s Canal+ must comply with conditions for merger to proceed

By  |  July 24, 2012

The French Competition Authority approved Vivendi’s acquisition of Vincent Bollore channels Direct 8 and Direct Star but not without attaching conditions to preserve competition in the sector. The seven major conditions are chiefly concerned with Canal+, Vivendi’s pay-TV business, and its new ability to broadcast “premium sports and cinema content” on free channels. Competitors that operate free channels, such as TF1 and M6, complain that Canal+ would acquire an unfair share in the best content rights if allowed to enter the free channel market.

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    Canal+ would be required to sell its stake in movie channel Orange Cinema Series, make other movie channels available to other distributors, and refrain from submitting joint bids for content rights for its pay-TV and free channels to comply with conditions.

    Full content: Reuters

     

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