France’s antitrust body plans to investigate exclusive content deals made by ISPs for their IPTV services (statement) - a move that could force Orange to open up its IPTV channel offering. The body will review whether deals between ISPs and content producers are anti-competitive, according to another statement from France’s Ministry of Economy, Industry and Employment

France’s government considers the country “a pioneer” in IPTV, noting some 3.6 million French households receive television via ADSL, and that half of the Europeans homes using IPTV are French. No company has been singled out, but France Telecom’s Orange TV has signed a number of exclusive content deals, including those with France Television, HBO, Warner Bros and MGM. The investigation echoes last year’s Ofcom ruling, in which the regulator said it would force BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) to offer its core channels at fair prices to rivals by regulating their wholesale distribution. There are also parallels with Project Kangaroo, which the UK’s Competition Commission is on the verge of blocking. France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) has had less success with its Orange IPTV service in the UK. After years of delay, the service was put on hold after it was determined to be too similar to BT (NYSE: BT) Vision.

France competition watchdog in December also outlawed Orange’s exclusive iPhone carriage arrangement, allowing other operators to sell the handset. Though parent France Telecom was worried this might hurt Christmas sales, Orange actually tripled December 2008 iPhone sales from December 2007 to 210,000, Bloomberg reports, citing local French newspaper La Tribune.