The European commission has accused Disney and Warner Bros. along with Paramount pictures, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, NBCUniversal and Sky UK for setting up barriers that restrict consumers from Europe's mainland from watching pay TV services available in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The European Union's commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, said that "European consumers want to watch the pay-TV channels of their choice regardless of where they live or travel in the EU...Our investigation shows that they cannot do this today, also because licensing agreements between the major film studios and Sky UK do not allow consumers in other EU countries to access Sky's UK and Irish pay-TV services, via satellite or online"
In retrospect, this is not the first time that European Union accused anti-trust violations against large international companies, for earlier this year large tech companies such as Google, MasterCard, Qualcomm, Amazon and Russian energy giant Gazprom were also investigated for abusing its dominance in favor of their market positions.
Through the series of investigations and consultations, it was exposed that there was a practice of "geo blocking" being employed. As a result, contents based on geographical location were being restricted in some way. The investigating body has already sent their statement of objections containing formal charges against Sky UK and other American based studios.
Regardless the location, the European viewers would like to watch the pay TV channels of their own choosing whether at home or travelling in the areas of Europe. So if the charges could be upheld, it would really be a viewing changing event for most consumers especially for those who are subscribing on paid television services. An estimated of 500 million consumer would benefit from this investigation if they are allowed to buy contents from any European Union broadcaster regardless there point of origin, thus eliminating the so called geo-blocking practice.
But the cause for celebration would still have to be postponed, for the direct move of European Commission against the big Hollywood names is gaining some reactions in Washington, where suspicion about EU trade regulation has already been surfacing.
