The European Commission has extended by two weeks its probe into the creation of Vizzavi. It was scheduled on July 10 to announce whether it thinks there is a competition question to be answered (Screendaily, June 15). It will now make the announcement on July 20. This kind of delay often indicates that the companies involved have offered some kind of concessions.

Vizzavi is the multi-access-portal that was launched last month as a joint venture between Vivendi and Vodafone Airtouch. It is one of the convergence cornerstones on which Vivendi and Canal Plus' takeover of Seagram is built.

The portal - which will be the default browser for some 80 million mobile phone subscribers as well as pay-TV users across Europe - has already run into flak. Earlier this week phone giants British Telecommunications and SBC sought a court order that potentially bans Vizzavi from being carried by Vivendi's own mobile phone network, SFR (Screendaily, July 2).