French Watchdog Seeks Limit on Exclusive Orange Content

PARIS: France’s Competition Authority wants IPTV platform Orange to give access to its exclusive content to a wider pool of consumers, outside of its base of broadband subscribers.

In a bid to lure and maintain customers, the France Telecom-owned IPTV service has been investing heavily in exclusive content deals for TV series, movies and French football. The French competition watching wants Orange to distribute that exclusive content to other platforms after an initial period of one or two years, press reports indicate.

"Exclusivity must remain an exceptional solution, strictly limited in time and scope," France’s Competition Authority said in a statement.