Tuesday July 7, 01:20 PM
UPDATE 1-Orange can keep web content exclusivity for now
By Cyril Altmeyer
PARIS, July 7 (Reuters) - France Telecom (Paris: FR0000133308 - news) 's Orange division on Tuesday saw its disputed exclusive television content offer to its ADSL Internet subscribers limited in time to one to two years.
The country's competition watchdog, in an eagerly awaited ruling set to influence the business model for new technologies and investment in fibre optics, said the double exclusivity Orange enjoys for some content was not the right solution.
Orange won a court appeal on May 14 that allowed it to sell an Orange Sport television package of exclusive content to its own Internet access clients following a court case brought by main rivals such as Vivendi (Paris: FR0000127771 - news) , which owns Canal Plus (Paris: FR0000125460 - news) pay-television and telecom and Internet group SFR.
Since December 2008, Orange has launched Orange Sport on the basis of its rights to big soccer matches such as the Saturday evening match in the top league, as well as cinema packages in an exclusive deal with Warner Bros, HBO, Gaumont (Paris: FR0000034894 - news) and Fidelite Films.
By the end of March, Orange had 363,000 subscribers to its television packages, of whom 112,000 were for Orange Sport.
A spokesman for SFR said the group was pleased with the ruling on Tuesday.
The government had asked the competition body for its advice, and the watchdog in return said lawmakers had to clear up the rules.
The watchdog still has to rule on a complaint by Canal Plus and SFR against Orange claiming that Orange is selling the soccer matches below cost.
Orange had no immediate comment.
(Reporting by Marcel Michelson; Editing by James Regan) Keywords: FRANCE ORANGE/
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