The Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe  (ACT) released a statement on Monday, urging the European Commission to designate smart TV operating systems and virtual assistant platforms as ‘gatekeepers' under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The call would expand regulatory measures against the growing market power of Big Tech's companies, which broadcasters argue are increasing controlled content distribution and audience access through smart TVs and virtual assistants, via smartphone. 

The call highlights the competition between traditional broadcasters and Big Tech companies, whose market share has grown steadily in recent years. Android TV increased its market share from 16% to 23%, Amazon Fire OS rose from 5% to 12% during the same period, driven by a dual model combining proprietary devices and licensing to third-party TV manufacturers. Samsung's Tizen OS maintained a 24% market share. 

While Connected TVs (CVT) expand the European's media, gaming and other industries landscape, broadcasters warn that these opportunities can be endangered by their roles as intermediaries, promoting gatekeeping practices by influencing what users see and access. The CTV operating systems providers gatekeep by incentivizing or restricting the end-users, effectively retaining them within their ecosystem. 

This concentration of control, ACT claims, could allow a small number of operators to gain the power to monopolize the industry by “controlling access to audiences and content distribution”. The group  stressed the importance for the Commission to “designate major TV operating systems as gatekeepers and ensure adequate oversight to guarantee fairness and contestability.” 

ACT also called for Virtual Assistants (VAs) to fall under DMA rules  as gatekeepers, citing a regulatory void that allows AI assistants to regulate and recommend the media content across apps without being subject to DMA obligations.

The Association, whose members include Canal+, RTL, Mediaset, ITV, Paramount+, NBCUniversal, Walt Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Sky and TF1 Groupe, alsoCompetition Commissioner Teresa Ribera to apply DMA rules based on qualitative criteria  even where platforms fall short of quantitative thresholds such as 45 million monthly active users or €75B in market capitalisation. 

Additionally, they further called for a reassessment of how “business users” are defined when determining whether virtual assistants should be classified as gatekeepers, as part of the ongoing DMA review.

Other signatories to the statement include the Association of European Radios (AER), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), egta, Confindustria Radio Televisioni (CRTV), UTECA and VOP.