Who is the regulator of the competition in immersive audio and video?

According to the reporter of Fars news agency’s art group, after the announcement of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution regarding the supervision of the broadcasting organization on the home show network, Satra and its regulatory conditions become the headlines of the news in the field of culture and art every few days.

Satra and the formation of the comprehensive sound and image competition council

At the beginning of August, a news was published by Satra with the content of the formation of the All-encompassing Sound and Image Competition Council. In this news, Satra had announced that it plans to form an all-encompassing audio and video competition council in virtual space in order to regulate and monitor competition in the media industry with the presence of Satra managers and representatives of the competition council, consumer and producer support organization and “Rasta” assembly. to give

Mustafa Berhani, the adviser to the head of Satra and the manager of the regulation of the competition environment of the Broadcasting Organization, considered the purpose of forming this council to regulate and monitor the competition in the media industry.

Before that, Saeed Moqiseh, the president of Satra, had announced regarding the production of inclusive audio and video content: “In this process, there are different, disconnected and parallel value creation chains. From the idea to the plan, from the plan to the film production and home show, virtual space, etc., to the broadcast to the side products, it is all a chain.

In my opinion, one of the most important goals of the union and assemblies can be to help synergy and align the activities of value creation chains. If we connect the chain of content production, it will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of efforts in the field of culture and art.”

Mustafa Berhani, the adviser to the head of Satra and the director of competition regulation of the Broadcasting Organization, said about the duties of this council: “Prevention of discrimination and distortion of competition, prohibition of takeover and illegal interactions, preservation of media diversity and protection of consumers’ interests are among the duties of this council.”

Burhani went on to enumerate other responsibilities of the Competition Council and noted: “Investigating and researching competition violations, handling complaints and competition disputes, preventing sanctions and abuse of market power, setting competition rules and regulations, applying competition rules, providing guidance and Advising and promoting competition is one of the responsibilities of this council.

The advisor to the head of the Universal Audio and Video Media Regulatory Organization emphasized: “Monitoring competition in content publishing platforms is an important issue that has received more attention from governments and global legal institutions in recent years.”

National Competition Center: Satra is not neutral in this matter

However, a few days after the announcement of this news, the Competition Council and the National Competition Center reacted to Satra’s move to form a competition council in the field of universal audio and video and emphasized in an announcement that contrary to Satra’s claim, the competition council will be present in this newly established council. does not have. Also, in this announcement, the National Competition Center considered Satra to be lacking the necessary neutrality to interfere in the regulation of competition in this market, regardless of the fact that it lacks the necessary legal authority in this field, due to its dependence on radio and television.

In a part of this notification, it is stated: “According to Article (62) of the Law on the Implementation of General Policies, Article (44) of the Constitution, the Competition Council is the “only authority” to deal with anti-competitive procedures, and according to Article (43) of the aforementioned law, all natural and legal persons The public, government, cooperative and private sectors are subject to the powers of the competition council, and to handle and deal with anti-competitive behaviors, the legislator has considered various tools for the competition council.

It is also stated in this announcement that one of the important principles of competition regulation is the issue of independence from the beneficiaries, which has been given a lot of attention in the design of the competition council in the law. Also, the National Competition Center emphasized in its announcement that the dependence of the regulatory body on the market players causes its decisions to be damaged from the point of view of public interest and may be oriented towards the interests of some market players.

Satra’s membership in the Competition Council

According to the approval of the country’s competition council, the regulatory organization of the ubiquitous audio and video media in the virtual space (Satra) became a member of the digital economy working group of the competition council.

In the 590th meeting of the Competition Council, in order to facilitate and prepare the handling of anti-competitive procedures in the markets related to information and communication technology and businesses related to virtual space, a specialized working group of digital economy was established with the membership of Satra in specialized issues related to the ubiquitous audio and video market. Be formed.

In the text of the approval of the Competition Council regarding the formation of the digital economy working group with Satra as a member in the field of inclusive audio and video, it is stated: In line with the authority of the Competition Council, the subject of Chapter 9 of the Law on the Implementation of General Policies, Article (44) of the Constitution and based on paragraph 3 of Article 58 of the aforementioned law In order to facilitate and prepare the handling of anti-competitive procedures in the markets related to information and communication technology and businesses related to virtual space, the digital economy specialized working group, which is called “working group” in this instruction, is formed under the competition council as follows:

Article 1) The composition of the working group members is as follows:
1-1. One of the members of the competition council as the chairman of the working group to be chosen by the competition council
1-2. Two experts in the field of information and communication technology, chosen and decided by the head of the competition council
1-3. Economic and legal assistants of the National Competition Center
4-1. Head of Radio Communications Regulatory Organization
5.1. Head of the National Center for Cyberspace

Note 1- In matters related to the ubiquitous audio and video market, the head of the Regulatory Organization for the Regulation of Inclusive Audio and Visual Media in Cyberspace (Satra) and in matters related to electronic commerce, the head of the Electronic Commerce Development Center is also a member of the working group.
Note 2- The economic deputy of the National Competition Center is the secretary of the working group.

Conclusion

It should be seen what will happen after the formation of this working group by the competition council and the membership of Satra in that council which was formed in Satra for the same purpose and of course the national competition center had opposed it.

What is clear is that, from today, Satra is a member of a working group that will work to control competition in the ubiquitous audio and video market. Businesses related to virtual space are necessary in this space.

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