BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Paramount Pictures has offered the EU antitrust regulator concessions in a landmark case over geographical restrictions on movie licensing deals between British broadcaster Sky UK (L:SKYB) and six U.S. studios, the European Commission said on Friday.
The Commission statement said the concessions proposed by Paramount, a unit of Viacom (O:VIAB), would mean that the film maker would not bar its customers among EU pay-TV providers from responding to unsolicited requests from consumers who were in the EU but outside the broadcaster's licensed territory.
In seeking comment from interested parties on the Paramount offer, it added that its investigation was continuing into Sky and the other five studios.
In January, Sky and the six studios -- Comcast's (O:CMCSA) NBCUniversal, Walt Disney (N:DIS), Sony (T:6758), Twenty First Century Fox (O:FOXA) and Warner Brothers (N:TWC) as well as Paramount -- rebuffed EU charges of anti-competitive behaviour at a hearing before a decision expected this year.
Last year, the European Commission accused them of preventing consumers outside Britain and Ireland from accessing films and other content broadcast by the British pay-TV group -- behaviour known as "geoblocking", which the Commission is trying to eliminate as it promotes a Digital Single Market in the EU.
Clauses in the deals also prevent other broadcasters from making their pay-TV services available in the UK and Ireland.
The EU wants to boost growth in the 28-country bloc. Defenders of territorial licensing, however, say that the system preserves the region's cultural diversity and safeguards fair payment for artists and content providers.