25 November 2021: Erratum
Following the publication of the public consultation on the draft decision on the wholesale market for terrestrial audiovisual broadcasting services on 29 October 2021, a paragraph numbering error was identified in section 2 "Commitments" of Part 5 "Annex: TDF's proposed commitments - version of 19 October 2021".
This error has been corrected in this version of the public consultation.
Arcep has begun the process of revising its analysis of the wholesale market for digital terrestrial broadcasting (DTT) services. As part of this process, the Authority published its assessment of the previous regulatory period along with proposed commitments for TDF for public consultation, which ran from 3 May to 3 June of this year.
A draft decision for the new regulatory period (2022 – 2026) published for consultation and submitted to the Competition Authority and Broadcasting Authority, CSA, for opinion
After having taken stakeholders’ contributions to this first public consultation into account, Arcep established a draft decision for the period running from 2022 to 2026, to which is attached a revised version of TDF’s commitments, both of which are being published today for public consultation. This draft decision is also being submitted to France’s Competition Authority and Broadcasting Authority, CSA, for opinion.
In its draft decision Arcep concludes that, today, terrestrial broadcasting cannot be considered a perfect substitute for other TV broadcasting systems, and that DTT market competition is minimal. As a result, having completed its analysis, Arcep concluded that TDF enjoys significant power in the upstream wholesale market for digital terrestrial broadcasting services.
TDF’s commitments reflect the goals set to develop effective competition
Arcep’s analysis led to the conclusion that the commitments incumbent on TDF for a period of five years are designed to help achieve the objectives set forth in Article L. 32-1 of the French Postal and Electronic Communications Code (CPCE), notably the development of effective competition in the electronic communications sector, as well as the goals set for the next regulatory period, namely 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.
Arcep invites all audiovisual programme distribution market stakeholders, and especially broadcasters and multiplexes operating in this market, to send their comments to the Authority before 5 p.m. on 17 December.