European Commission Drops Legal Proceedings Against Sweden

BRUSSELS, June 5: The
European Commission has withdrawn its case against Sweden at the European Court
of Justice after the country’s government abolished Boxer’s exclusivity on
digital terrestrial broadcasting services.

The Commission referred
Sweden to the Court of Justice in October 2006. The Commission maintains that
Swedish legislation had resulted in a situation where Boxer was the only
company that could provide encryption and distribution of digital TV via the terrestrial
network. The country has now amended its legislation, and the Commission says
that there are no more legal obstacles to new entrants into the market.

Boxer is owned by
broadcaster Teracom and private-equity fund 3i. The company’s DTT network currently
reaches 98 percent of Swedish households. At the end of March, Boxer had
709,000 digital TV subscribers.

—By Mansha Daswani