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http://www.thedailydeal.com/features/inthenews/A29685-2000Oc… AOL, Time Warner: more grief Dow Jones Federal regulators are expanding their review of the America Online Inc. and Time Warner Inc. merger to include set-top boxes, the gateway for receiving the Internet on television sets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, October 4. The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission have started to scrutinize the role of the boxes as a potential bottleneck in the delivery of Internet services, people familiar with the deliberations said. Interactive television, which could include e-mail, electronic commerce, instant messaging and even telephone service, would flow through set-top boxes. If a company can control the box, it can control what gets through the cable line and onto the television screen. What regulators would do, if anything, isn`t clear because the services -- and the circuitry to offer them -- are in initial stages of development. Neither agency would comment on the investigations. The intense scrutiny came after the companies told the FCC that an agreement to open their cable lines to rival Internet providers didn`t include set-top boxes. "Set-top boxes were not contemplated" in the pact, the companies wrote in response to an FCC question on whether rival Internet-service providers would be allowed to offer interactive services through set-top boxes. But the companies did say Time Warner Cable is "always willing to discuss business arrangements with potential providers of any other services." Some of the issues raised in the merger of Time Warner, New York, and AOL, Dulles, Va., never have been addressed in previous mergers, and the review sometimes shifts to accommodate what regulators learn along the way. Everest Connections Corp., a Time Warner Cable competitor based in Kansas City, Mo., recently complained to the FCC that a set-top-box maker had an agreement with Time Warner that barred sales of the boxes to Time Warner rivals. Time Warner had no comment on the matter. The two agencies are expected to complete their reviews this month, with the FCC working under a self-imposed deadline of Oct. 16. grosse ereignisse werfen lange schatten sunseeker |
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| aus der Diskussion: | Interactive TV - Markt und Wettbewerb |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | SunSeeker22 (05.10.00 21:43:01) |
| Beitrag: | 33 von 232 (ID:2001704) |
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