The European Commission announced 1/13 it is opening an antitrust probe into aspects of licensing agreements between several major U.S. film studios and the largest European pay-TV broadcasters. The Commission, the EU’s antitrust watchdog, said it will examine whether licensing provisions prevent broadcasters from providing services across borders, reported Reuters: “The focus is licensing agreements between Twenty-First Century Fox, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, NBCUniversal and Paramount Pictures and European pay-TV broadcasters such as Britain’s BSkyB, France’s Canal Plus, Germany’s Sky Deutschland, Sky Italia of Italy and DTS of Spain.”
