Paramount Pictures agreed to stop searching geoblocking restrictions "license when its film outlet for pay TV to a broadcaster" within the European economic Area (EEA), according to a European Commission press release. in addition, Paramount Pictures agreed not to enforce . existing contractual clauses involving geoblocking geoblocking, a form of censorship on the Internet, is the act of restricting access to something based on the geographical location of the consumer - and it is now considered anti-competitive
the European Commission began an antitrust investigation into contracts with Sky TV. 6 major movie studios around the world last July. Apart from Paramount Pictures, the EU is also examining Disney, NBCUniversal, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. for breach of the EU competition rules with geoblocking. Paramount Pictures binding decision to stop all instances of European geoblocking and not seek such clauses in the future is hopefully the beginning of more favorable consumer licensing agreements.
Including boundaries in negotiations video rights has long been a facet of the entertainment world. Geo-blocking is a map that large companies have played against streaming services such as Sky TV, Hulu, Amazon Prime Now and Netflix as leverage in negotiations for years. Geographical restrictions are one of the pain points that led to the current situation: the stagnation of entertainment libraries and lowered subscription rates. Since streaming services began the crackdown on the use of VPN, which is a simple way to bypass geo-blocking restrictions, the pain was amplified.
A Brief History of geoblocking
If we dig deep into the annals of history, we find that the geo-discrimination is a fundamental fact of life. Merchants makes money by providing goods that have been found only on one side of the world to a place on the other side of the world to be sold for a profit. Said that the merchants traveled by sea (around the Cape of Good Hope) or by land (through the silk route), there would be ports or trading posts along the way. The price the shopkeeper demanded for its silk change in predictable ways depending on the distance the merchant was from China. As well, the silk in this case makes its way further from its source, transport costs must be added to the right so that economic incentives play still out.
Few people actually call based economy an instance of geoblocking, however. In the modern world of Internet connections and subscription video streaming services, the cost of transportation is absolutely negligible film producer. Partitioning distribution "rights" in different regions, should a company in those regions able to pay them, is something that happens because there is no permanent settlements in the way. Now that the European Commission has cracked down geoblocking within the EU, we can hope that other regions will soon follow the new example and set a new standard in the industry.
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