Pay TV and apartments
The Competition Authority has received numerous complaints in recent years about pay TV in apartment developments.
In particular, residents have found themselves unable to switch to alternative pay TV providers due to exclusivity agreements.
The competition watchdog has investigated the complaints and has published a guide for apartment residents and prospective apartment buyers. The guide covers issues such as:
- Exclusivity agreements and competition law
- Whether satellite dishes are banned under planning regulations
- Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)
- Questions residents should ask about the feasibility of alternative service provision
Lengths of contracts
Consumers are best served by vigorous competition and a variety of choices.
But the Competition Authority also recognises that the need for significant investment in pay TV infrastructure means providers will seek to guarantee an income stream before agreeing to install this infrastructure. Otherwise, there may not be a sufficient incentive for them to service apartment developments.
For this reason, the Authority considers that "short-term (no more than two years' duration) exclusive agreements are, in this particular instance, warranted to ensure that pay-TV providers have a sufficient incentive to install infrastructure."
But it says competition problems may arise in the case of longer-term exclusive agreements.
Consumers who become aware of long-term exclusive agreements should contact the Competition Authority to report their concerns.
Satellite dishes
Regarding satellite dishes, the Authority says residents should familiarise themselves with the precise restrictions, and the source of the restrictions, in their apartment development.
Generally speaking, external walls of apartments are not owned by residents.
On the question of planning restrictions, it says: "While there may be aesthetic grounds for preventing a proliferation of satellite dishes on apartment balconies, residents should be aware that Planning Guidelines facilitate, and indeed encourage, the erection of communal satellite dishes in apartment developments."
Digital Terrestrial Television
The Authority says DTT "has the potential to cause a significant shift in the market by providing an alternative to the need to agree terms on installation and ownership of shared infrastructure in apartment developments".
Enforcement Decision
The Competition Authority has also published an Enforcement Decision.
This gives the Authority's legal and economic analysis of pay TV exclusive agreements, and which practices are likely to comply with competition law.
It says property developers and pay TV infrastructure and service providers should draft any agreements they enter into so as to avoid breaching either section 4 or section 5 of the Competition Act 2002.
Learn more
Download the Competition Authority's guidance notes for consumers on pay TV (PDF, 502KB)
Download the Authority's Enforcement Decision (PDF, 310KB)
Read the Competition Authority's press release about the issue