HBO asks competition office for guarantee
U.S. pay-TV channel HBO has asked the competition and consumer watchdog to guarantee its interests in the pending merger between digital platforms Wizja TV and Cyfra+.
HBO, which is available through cable TV networks and digital platform Wizja TV, has sent a series of letters to the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) during the past few weeks requesting that the office guarantee its position on the merged platform before granting approval for the deal.
The UOKiK has been evaluating the merger since it was inked in August between Amsterdam-based United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC), owner of Wizja TV, and Frances Vivendi Universal, owner of Cyfra+. While the UOKiK has yet to respond to HBOs pleas for assistance, according to a source familiar with the deal the UOKiK cannot protect HBOs interests because legally the channel is not part of the merger probe.
Since sending its first letter to the UOKiK last month, HBO has warned that a merger between the two platforms could lead to a consolidation of the pay-TV market. According to Cyfra+ General Director Christian Kozar (see the Business Journal, Oct. 15-22), while the letters prove that HBO is not against the merger, they do indicate that the pay-TV station is concerned about its future on the merged platform.
According to Andrzej Graduszyński, director of the UOKiK department in charge of investigating the merger, HBOs lawyers have spent long hours lobbying the UOKiK to guarantee the stations position on the market.
We have good intentions and wed like to make (HBOs) life easier, but they have no legal ground to demand such a guarantee from us, Graduszyński said. I have been sitting with my lawyers for the last two days working out an official response to their letters. No legal body in the world would give (HBO) a guarantee to stay on the platform forever. Besides, even if they are off the digital platform, they will stay in cable (TV).
Furthermore, Graduszyński said the UOKiK is not in a position to do anything about a potential domination of the market. In a situation like this, we usually say that before we can intervene there must some real concentration on the market, he said. But the merger wont impact the market that significantly because we think the market is much broader (than the pay-TV sector).
The UOKiK has two more weeks to approve or reject the deal. Well take the final decision on one of the first days of November, Graduszyński said. We still have time.
HBO, part of the AOL Time Warner media group, has been in Poland since 1996. After UPC and Vivendi Universal reached the merger deal, the firms said the future of HBO would not become an issue for them. But despite reassuring words by both UPC and Cyfra+, HBO may have reason to believe its days on the new platform are numbered. One of Cyfra+s flagship channels, Canal+, shows primarily films.
