BEREC report on the impact of premium content on ECS markets and the effect of devices on the open use of the Internet

Document number: BoR (18) 35

Document date: 08-03-2018

Date of registration: 14-03-2018

Document type:
Author: BEREC

The general purpose of this report is to study how the electronic communications sector is influenced by other sectors, in particular in two specific areas: content (section 2) and devices (section 3). Electronic communication services (ECS) can enable end-users to access content; therefore content (e.g. audio-visual products) and ECS can be complementary goods. In the context of this report, content valued enough by end-users to make a sizeable share of them switch ECS providern (such as, but not restricted to, certain sports events and blockbuster films and TV series) is qualified as “premium content”. In this report, the term “content” refers to the various products conveyed to the end-user by means of electronic communications services, such as text, voice, videos, images, and sound. For example, TV channels can be broadcasted through any means of transmission used by ECS providers – fibre, cable, satellite, terrestrial broadcasting etc. The term “Electronic Communication Service” (ECS) is to be understood according to the definition provided in the framework directive, i.e. as “a service normally provided for remuneration which consists wholly or mainly in the conveyance of signals on electronic communications networks, including telecommunications services and transmission services in networks used for broadcasting, but exclude services providing, or exercising editorial control over, content transmitted using electronic communications networks and services; it does not include information society services, as defined in Article 1 of Directive 98/34/EC, which do not consist wholly or mainly in the conveyance of signals on electronic communications networks”.