European Broadcasters Urge DMA Gatekeeper Status for Smart TV OS

In Brussels on Monday, March 23, a coalition of major European broadcasters urged EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera to designate smart television operating systems from Google, Amazon, Apple, and Samsung as gatekeepers under the bloc's Digital Markets Act, citing their expanding dominance in content distribution. The request, outlined in a letter from the Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe (ACT), also targets virtual assistants such as Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri, aiming to impose stricter regulatory obligations on these technologies amid concerns over their influence on media access.

The broadcasters, including members like Canal, RTL Group, Mediaset, ITV, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Sky, and TF1 Group, highlighted data from a 2025 market study showing significant growth in the platforms' market shares. Android TV, operated by Google, rose from 16 percent to 23 percent between 2019 and 2024, while Amazon's Fire OS increased from 5 percent to 12 percent over the same period. Samsung's Tizen OS holds a 24 percent share. These systems, the group argued, enable a handful of operators to control access to...