COMECON MEDIA

Another influential EU B2B media has been taken over by a non-European company - shortly after the FT sale to Nikkei was announced. How will this change the EU's B2B media landscape that is one of the most important control centres for European and global politics. How long can European media groups afford their national blinkers? Has only Axel Springer understood the signs of the times?
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NEW YORK, July 28, 2015 – LexisNexis Legal & Professional (www.lexisnexis.com) a leading provider of content and technology solutions, today announced the acquisition of MLex, a global legal media organization providing exclusive market insight, analysis and commentary on regulatory risk.
“Access to breaking news and expert analysis of the latest developments in regulatory risk is becoming ever more critic…

July 23, 2015

Pearson is today announcing that it has agreed the sale of FT Group to Nikkei Inc. for a gross consideration of £844 million, payable in cash.

Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy. It includes the FT newspaper, FT.com, How to Spend It, FT Labs, FTChinese, the Confidentials and Financial Publishing (including The Banker, Investors Chronicle, MandateWire, Money-Media, Medley Global Advisors and more). At the FT, total circulation across print and digital rose more than 30% over the last five years to 737,000, with digital circulation growing to represent 70% of the total, from 24%, and mobile driving almost half of all traffic. Content and services now account for the majority of revenues.

In 2014, FT Group contributed £334m of sales and £24m of adjusted operating income to Pearson. At 30 June 2015, FT Group had gross assets of approximately £250m. The agreement does not include FT Group’s Londo…

Brussels, 23 July 2015


The European Commission has today sent a Statement of Objections to Sky UK and six major US film studios: Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. The Commission takes the preliminary view that each of the six studios and Sky UK have bilaterally agreed to put in place contractual restrictions that prevent Sky UK from allowing EU consumers located elsewhere to access, via satellite or online, pay-TV services available in the UK and Ireland. Without these restrictions, Sky UK would be free to decide on commercial grounds whether to sell its pay-TV services to such consumers requesting access to its services, taking into account the regulatory framework including, as regards online pay-TV services, the relevant national copyright laws.

If the Commission's preliminary position were to be confirmed, each of the companies would have breached EU competition rules prohibiting anti-competitive agreements. The s…

The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition of joint control over the new Norwegian company Helthjem by a subsidiary of Amedia (also of Norway) together with its current parent, a subsidiary of Schibsted. Helthjem will offer delivery of parcels in Norway. Schibsted is an international media group headquartered in Norway. Amedia is a Norwegian media group. The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would not raise competition concerns because of the parties' negligible shares in the market on which Helthjem will be active or in connected markets. The transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure. More information is available on the Commission's competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.7664.

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Questions and answers on the public consultation on the Audiovisual Media landscape in Europe

See also "Commission seeks views on Europe's audiovisual media rules"

Does the Commission plan to review the Audiovisual Media Services Directive?
The Commission's recently presented Digital Single Market strategy announces a review of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) under the title “A media framework for the 21st century” in 2016.

According to the Strategy, the Commission will examine the functioning of the EU AVMSD and “will review the Audiovisual Media Services Directive with a focus on its scope and on the nature of the rules applicable to all market players, in particular measures for the promotion of European works, and the rules on protection of minors and advertising rules.”

Accordingly, the Commission is currently carrying out an assessment of the AVMSD via the new Regulatory Fitness (REFIT) evaluation process, under the recently adopted Com…

How can we improve the current EU rules for broadcast and on-demand audio-visual media services in the digital age? How can we best protect children and other viewers, support European creative works, stimulate our rich cultural diversity, promote access to information and regulate advertising in the audio-visual online world? # The European Commission is asking these and other questions to viewers and stakeholders (market players, public organisations, consumer organisations) in apublic consultationthat was launched today and which has the aim to propose, in 2016, a review of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive(AVMSD).  Adopted in 2010, the AVMSD provides rules on issues like the roles and responsibilities of all market players, promotion of European works, advertising and protection of minors. The Commission will examine whether the current system should be adapted. It will also consider whether its current scope should be broadened so as to apply to new services and players that…

Draft Second Act amending the Book Resale Price Maintenance Act
Category : Electronic commerce
Summary :
Specific clarification of the validity of the Book Resale Price Maintenance Act (Buchpreisbindungsgesetz) for electronic books and securing of book resale price maintenance through the application of the rules on the sale of books to final purchasers in Germany
More details at the following address : ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/tris/nview.cfm?p=2015_333_EN_EN

ECJ: Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C 347/14 New Media Online: Advocate General Maciej Szpunar considers that the website of a daily newspaper containing audiovisual material is not an audiovisual service within the meaning of EU law

Court of Justice of the European Union

PRESS RELEASE No 75/15

Luxembourg, 1 July 2015

Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-347/14

New Media Online

Advocate General Maciej Szpunar considers that the website of a daily newspaper containing audiovisual material is not an audiovisual service within the meaning of EU law

Possible difficulties arising from the need for the national regulatory authorities to assess the character of the services existing on the market cannot justify extending the scope of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive to cover in practice all current audiovisual content on the internet

Directive 2010/131 lays down in particular that an audiovisual media services is a service which is under the editorial responsibility of a media service pr…