Paramount Offers EU Concessions on Sky UK Licensing Deals

BRUSSELS—Paramount Pictures has offered a series of concessions to satisfy European Union concerns about contracts signed with Sky UK Ltd. to license their films, the EU's antitrust authorities said on Friday.

The EU last July took aim at Hollywood, filing formal charges against six major U.S. film studios and pay-TV broadcaster Sky U.K. over alleged illegal licensing agreements. The contracts see these studios license their output of films over a certain period for pay-TV to Sky UK.

The EU accused the companies of violating competition laws by using clauses that restrict access to Sky's services outside the U.K. and Ireland, in a move that could recast how pay-TV is sold and viewed in Europe.

Viacom Inc.-owned Paramount Pictures, offered several concessions to address EU concerns.

EU antitrust authorities will now seek feedback from interested parties on the concessions. If it accepts them, the concessions will be made legally binding on Paramount.

Among the concessions offered, Paramount said it would not impose contractual obligations when licensing a film to a pay-TV broadcaster in the European Economic Area which stop that broadcaster making the film available to consumers in another country.

Paramount said they would not seek to bring an action before a court or tribunal to enforce a violation of current contracts which stop broadcasters making a film available to consumers in another country.

These commitments would apply for five years and cover standard pay-TV services and subscription video-on-demand services. They would also cover both online services and satellite broadcast services.

The six studios are Walt Disney Co.'s Disney, Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., 21 Century Fox's Twentieth Century Fox and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Entertainment.

21st Century Fox Inc. was until 2013 part of the same company as The Wall Street Journal owner News Corp. Sky is 39%-owned by 21st Century Fox.

The charges came amid a broader push by the European Union to eradicate barriers to a single market for digital services in the region. Regulators are focusing in particular on eliminating "geo-blocking," where companies restrict access to films or other online content outside a particular licensed territory.

Write to Laurence Norman at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 22, 2016 07:05 ET (11:05 GMT)

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