Study into bundling of telecom services and content in the Netherlands

ACM has studied the impact of bundling of telecom services and content. For now, this does not create any anticompetitive risks. ACM has seen that consumers increasingly opt for multiple telecom products in a single package. Although bundling can be advantageous for consumers, ACM also sees a number of anticompetitive risks in the longer term. Partly as a result of bundling, consumers will switch less quickly, making it difficult for smaller providers to grow. The increased importance of television content in bundles can make a positive contribution to competition between providers. However, anticompetitive risks may arise if providers acquire, for example, must-have content and they do not resell it under reasonable conditions. Furthermore, there is a risk that consumers will, in future, have to take out plans with multiple providers to have access to all the content they wish to see. ACM will continue to monitor the trends in this market very closely. In February 2017, ACM published a preliminary version of this analysis, and held a consultation among market participants. Based in part on the comments from that consultation, this analysis has been updated, and ACM has drawn conclusions