Google, Amazon, Apple and Samsung’s smart TVs and virtual assistants should fall under the EU’s toughest tech rules because of their growing market power, the world’s largest broadcasters told European Commissioner for Competition Teresa Ribera yesterday.
The call by the Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe (ACT), whose members include Canal+, RTL, Mediaset, ITV, Paramount+, NBCUniversal, Walt Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Sky and TF1 Groupe, comes amid mounting concerns among broadcasters over Big Tech’s encroachment into their industry as they push back against their rivals.
Android TV, which increased its market share from 16 percent to 23 percent from 2019 to 2024, Amazon Fire OS whose market share rose from 5 percent to 12 percent in the same period and Samsung’s Tizen OS with its 24 percent market share should be designated as gatekeepers under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), the broadcasters said, citing data from a market study last year.
Photo: The Guardian
The DMA, applicable since 2023, sets out obligations aimed at curbing the power of major tech companies, boosting competition and expanding consumer choice.
“A limited number of operators are therefore gaining growing ability to shape outcomes for millions of users and businesses by controlling access to audiences and content distribution,” ACT said in a letter to Ribera seen by Reuters.
“It is crucial that the Commission designate major TV operating systems as gatekeepers and ensure adequate oversight to guarantee fairness and contestability,” the broadcasters said.
The lobbying group said their Big Tech rivals might have incentives to retain end-users within their own ecosystem and to contractually or technically restrict linking or redirection, for example from one media application to another media application.
The commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, Google, Amazon, Apple and Samsung did not immediately respond to e-mailed requests for comment.
The broadcasters also voiced concerns about virtual assistants, the most well known of which are Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, while OpenAI entered the field last year with a beta feature called Tasks for its AI chatbot ChatGPT.
The European Commission has yet to label any virtual assistants as gatekeepers under the DMA.
“The lack of designation of virtual assistants creates a regulatory void, allowing powerful AI assistants to become de facto gatekeepers for media content through mobile phones, smart speakers and in-car radio infotainment services, without being subject to DMA obligations,” the broadcasters said.
They urged Ribera to subject smart TVs and virtual assistants to the DMA on the basis of qualitative criteria even if they do not meet the quantitative benchmarks which are more than 45 million monthly active users and 75 billion euros (US$86.2 billion) in market capitalization.
Signatories to the letter include the Association of European Radios, the European Broadcasting Union, the European association of television and radio sales houses, Confindustria Radio Televisioni, Television Comercial en Abierto and Verband Osterreichischer Privatsender.
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