The European Commission is expected to demand that the new
company offers proprietary download technology to competitors due
to concerns that the company’s power will exclude others from the
on-line music and video distribution market.
Officials are also reported to be considering the imposition of
conditions that will force the merged company to make its
back-catalogue of content available for exploitation by other
operators.
The US Federal Trade Commission has expressed concerns that the
high-speed cable systems that Time Warner is installing throughout
the US, covering 20% of the population, will only be made available
to AOL users with the result that many homes will have to accept
AOL-Time Warner television and internet programming on an exclusive
basis.
Time Warner and AOL say they want to complete the deal by the
end of this year.
Talks are also taking place today between the Commission and
representatives of EMI and Warner Music, the music interest of Time
Warner. The proposed US $20 billion merger between the companies is
also expected to be subjected to conditions to ease competition
concerns.
