The European Commission has accepted an offer from Paramount Pictures that removes geoblocking of their content offered through Sky UK. Previously, Paramount prohibited Sky from broadcasting movies via satellite or online to customers outside the United Kingdom. In these old agreements, Paramount worked to prevent the same content from reaching Sky customers from the continent. Those agreements are now null and void, and such blocking of content will not be written into new contracts, according to the agreement reached with the European Commission.
The Commission had concerns that such agreements between studios and broadcasters was restricting trade, and have made this a priority to change the landscape of media consumption throughout Europe. Paramount is not the only studio under investigation. In July 2015, the Commission sent a Statement of Objections to five other studios, including Disney, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers in relation to their agreements with Sky UK. We should expect more retractions of geoblocking from these companies as the Commission regards these bilateral agreements violations of EU antitrust rules.
With the UK withdrawal from the European Union imminent, there may not be time for more rulings on the agreements with Sky UK, but any chink in the present geoblocking wall is worth noting. Eventually the studios are going to have to come to terms with the fact that the internet has made geoblocking an antique method of controlling their content. The more they apply it, the more there is incentive to pirate the content, rather than go through legal channels.
You can read the press release from the European Commission here.
