Canal Plus Punished $41 Million, TPS Merger Stopped

our editor recommends171 axed in Canal Plus-TPS mergerBritish film, TV landing on Canal Plus PARIS - France's antitrust watchdog the Autorite p la Concurrence withdrew its approval of pay TV giant Canal Plus' 2006 merger with then-rival group TPS on Wednesday and punished Canal Plus due to not doing the work on its obligations. The regulator has forced Canal Plus to cover &euro30 million ($41.millions of) due to not enhancing whatever they deem "essential" conditions in the deal, but advised Canal Plus to file for for any completely new application in one month for re-approval. Canal Plus is billed without following on its promise to balance the pay TV playing area within the u . s . states by considering making TPS group's channels available to Websites companies within their package and not delivering TPS with recently acquired U.S. sports and movie rights. The merger was created to create Canal Plus and TPS together use a strong movie and sports package of channels, nevertheless the French Competition Authority claims Canal Plus not successful to fulfill the 59 needs the group was prone to execute by 2012. Canal Plus expects to appeal your final decision the group referred to as "highly improbable and disproportionate due to the alleged breaches recognized" in the statement on Wednesday, adding: "It's naturally not imaginable to call into question amerger five years after it absolutely was completed." Canal Plus mentioned it welcomes the opportunity to begin a completely new dialogue while using antitrust government physiques and mentioned: "The conditions of competition winning 2006 have completely changed as well as the Autorites p la Concurrence's decision doesn't consider the disruption triggered for the TV market with the arrival of global Internet companies and Tecom operators." Canal Plus Group is possessed by media giant Vivendi. Related Subjects Worldwide Vivendi