The European Commission (EC) has extended its deadline for examining the proposed Vivendi-Canal Plus takeover of Seagram.

"They've offered us concessions and so we've extended the deadline (to rule) from October 2 to October 13," said EC spokeswoman Amelia Torres.

The proposed creation of the $40bn Vivendi Universal group has already been cleared by authorities in the US, Canada and France. But it is the subject of a full four month investigation by the EC on anti-trust issues.

Although it is not yet clear what is involved in the latest concessions, it also seems that the Vivendi Universal deal is closely linked in the minds of the EC with the two other multi-media bids on the Commission's desk: the takeover of Time Warner by America Online and Time Warner's related acquisition of EMI. In both these cases the EC has appeared ready to refuse the bids and has extracted significant concessions (see related story on Screendaily today).