Parties interested in reselling an analogue cable offer need to seek judgement on the question of who is responsible for the distribution contracts with the broadcasters, the Dutch telecoms regulator OPTA has ruled.
Tele2/Online, one of the parties interested in selling the analogue cable bouquet as part of its triple play offer, asked OPTA to require operators UPC and Ziggo to make ‘third party billing’ possible. This would mean that although UPC delivers the analogue signal, Tele2/Online could do the billing without a separate agreement with the broadcasters. UPC has already cleared all the right for analogue distribution over their network.
However, OPTA concluded that there may be copyright problems with such a construction. The question now is which party is responsible for the clearance of the distribution rights – the operator or the reseller. OPTA said it is not competent to judge in this case and Tele2/Online should go to a civil court to clarify the matter.
Once this is established, OPTA will require UPC and Ziggo to make an offer to UPC Tele2/Online for achieving third-party billing.
