Anti-trust org rules against Canal Plus

PARIS -- In France They anti-trust board has suspended its approval of Canal Plus Group's merger with pay TV operator TPS, and penalized the paybox group Pounds $ 30 million ($41 million) for breaking its obligations. The anti-trust board claims that Canal Plus Group has degraded the standard of TPS channels, and it has not given all of them with recent American films and sports privileges. Greenlit at the end of 2006, the merger has permitted Canal Plus Group to create together its very own satellite platform, CanalSat, using its former pay TV rival, TPS, to be able to boast a powerful package of film channels. However the anti-trust board, that was cautious about the merger, requested Canal Plus Group to fulfil 59 needs by 2012. It's now quarrelling the paybox unsuccessful to fulfil 10 of these and it is therefore asking Canal Plus Group to file for a brand new merger proposal inside a month. Canal Plus Group introduced Wednesday it would appeal from the anti-trust authority's decision, so it views to become "highly improbable and disproportionate, because of the alleged breaches recognized." The pay TV company also stated "the circumstances of competition winning 2006 have completely transformed and also the competition authority's decision does not consider the appearance of global Internet companies and telecom operators."The organization also stated the anti-trust board had chose to make this decision to "pressure Canal Plus to initiate new obligations, which may extend beyond individuals enforced underneath the authorization succumbed 2006."Canal Plus Group, however, mentioned it had been open to take part in new discussions using the anti-trust government bodies. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com