Arcep continues to regulate the wholesale digital terrestrial broadcasting market by making TDF’s voluntary commitments legally binding
In May 2021, Arcep began the process of reviewing its analysis of the wholesale market for digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting services. To this end, in late October 2021 it consulted with the sector’s stakeholders, as well as national and European institutions on a draft decision that included the commitments proposed by broadcasting infrastructure provider, TDF[1]. Following the comments received from stakeholders, and the opinions of France’s Competition Authority and Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communications (Arcom)[2], TDF made changes to its commitments on 24 February 2022.
These commitments align with the goals for the development of effective competition in the electronic communications sector, including to:
- secure alternative broadcasters’ access to the resources they need in the upstream market, to be able to operate in the downstream market;
- provide market players with predictability while maintaining enough pressure on the SMP operator’s pricing;
- safeguard alternative broadcasters’ earlier investments.
In light of this new proposal and the comments from the European Commission, today Arcep is publishing its Market Analysis Decision No. 2022-0931 on the wholesale market for digital terrestrial broadcasting.
Arcep is also publishing the responses to the public consultation it held on its draft decision, which ran from 29 October 2021 to 17 December 2021, along with the European Commission’s comments dated 22 April 2022 on the draft decision it was notified on 25 March 2022, on which it did not formulate any remarks.
Associated documents:
• Stakeholders’ publicly available contributions to the consultation that ran from 29 October 2021 to 17 December 2021 (zip – 2,89 Mo)
• Log of market analysis decisions
• Competition Authority Opinion 21-A-17 of 17 December 2021
Notes:
[1] 29 October 2021 Press release: New regulatory period for the upstream wholesale digital terrestrial broadcasting market: Arcep launches a public consultation