France's Ministry of Economy and Culture said that its competitive council is conducting an investigation into exclusive programming deals formed between ISPs and content companies. The general mission appears to have in mind a particular target-broadband service provider Orange, the France Telecom unit whose IPTV service includes exclusive movie and sports content.
It is not clear what will happen if the council finds Orange TV content deals to be anti-competitive, but the issue brings some additional drama to Europe's most successful and competitive IPTV market.
For more:
- Broadband TV News has this report [1]
Related articles
Orange reportedly wants to devise its own application store [2]
France Telecom added 70,000 IPTV customers in the third quarter [3]
Links:
[1] http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/?p=12732
[2] http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/app-opp-apples-and-oranges/2008-12-09
[3] http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/global-iptv-subscriber-round/2008-11-04