 French
regulator orders TDF to allow competitors to broadcast from Eiffel Tower
France’s Conseil de la Concurrence, an independent administrative
authority specialising in the repression of anticompetitive practices,
has ordered TDF to propose to towerCast a new wholesale hosting offer
for broadcasting FM from the Eiffel Tower site in order to allow towerCast
to effectively compete with TDF.
The decision follows a complaint by towerCast, a terrestrial broadcasting
service provider 99.9% owned by the NRJ group, about practices implemented
by TDF. TowerCast’s complaint alleged delaying tactics implemented
by TDF during the bid process launched by the City of Paris for the renewal
of the national occupancy contract of the Eiffel Tower terrestrial broadcasting
site.
TowerCast alleged that TDF had belatedly issued an estimate of the equipment
transfer value that was necessary to participate in the bid. TowerCast
also alleged that TDF had then sent an overestimated valuation, thus preventing
towerCast from presenting a competitive offer for the occupancy of the
Eiffel Tower broadcasting site.
The Conseil emphasized that towerCast is TDF’s sole competitor
in the market for FM radio terrestrial broadcasting. Its access to the
Eiffel Tower for broadcasting is especially important, notably as a result
of technical constraints in the Ile-de-France region. Among the major
radio and TV broadcasting sites, the Eiffel Tower site stands out for
its specially broad coverage due to its height. It can cover 11 million
inhabitants in the Ile-de-France region, 18% of the metropolitan population.
The Conseil de la Concurrence judged that the margin squeeze practice,
which was likely to constitute an abuse of dominant position by TDF, constituted
an immediate and serious impact on the opening of the sector to competition,
on the eve of the issuing by the CSA (French Broadcasting Council) of
new authorizations for the use of frequencies by private radio stations.
Therefore the Conseil has adopted interim measures.
The Conseil de la Concurrence has ordered TDF to :
issue a wholesale hosting offer for FM radio broadcasting from the Eiffel
Tower site within one month, enabling alternative distributors to effectively
compete with the retail offers made by TDF to radio stations, without
supporting any margin squeeze effect limit to one year the duration of
the contract, which the company is about to sign with private FM radio
stations for the broadcasting of their programmes from the Eiffel tower
site.
On this last point, the Conseil specifies that in the case where some
contracts have already been signed, TDF will have to propose the radio
stations concerned to sign a new contract for one year, thus invalidating
the one previously signed.
Source: Media Network, Conseil de la Concurrence
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