In about a week the negotiation deadline for a new agreement between TV2 and the distributors Canal Digital and Altibox expires. The Consumer Ombudsman demands that the TV distributors change their agreements.
Earlier this winter TVNorge and other channels from Discovery Networks went off the air due to a break in negotiations with Canal Digital. This may also result if the TV 2 does not reach an agreement with the distributors by next week, writes Dagens Næringsliv.
This has lead Consumer Ombuds(wo)man Gry Nergaard to demand that the six largest distributors of television signals in Norway change the terms of their contract. She does not want this to turn into a situation that will cause furious reaction from the customers like the one that resulted from the TVNorge matter.
– We see that the contracts often are not defined in a sufficiently clear manner, and that consumers in many cases are not entitled to receive notice of changes. We believe it is unreasonable to make changes in the composition of channel packages or price without consumers being notified of this, she says.
Nergård believes it is impossible to avoid TV channels going off the air because of conflicts, but that consumers are entitled to better information about their rights when such situations arise.
If TV2 goes off the air next week, it can affect the opening match of the European football championships if it takes a long time before the parties reach agreement, but both TV2 and Canal Digital inform the newspaper that they have faith that they will come to an agreement before the deadline.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
