Italian pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia and the Mediaset media company have been accused by the country’s antitrust authority, the AGCM, of violating competition law by dividing up rights to domestic football’s Serie A top division and excluding new entrants, according to a report by Sunday newspaper La Repubblica.
The report, which was confirmed by a source to the Reuters news agency, said AGCM investigators had provided their findings in a 56-page document, but there had been no ruling yet on whether rules had been broken.
The parties involved in the investigation will be asked to respond to the findings before a panel on February 16. The ruling will be announced by the AGCM after that.
The newspaper reported that the findings allege that the two companies “agreed to the outcome” of the rights auction, “blocking the entry of new operators”.
The AGCM began its investigation into a 2014 rights auction in May last year, and concluded the probe in December. Sky Italia and Mediaset were originally awarded rights in 2014 to matches featuring the eight biggest Serie A teams in the three seasons through to 2018. The outcome of the tender was tweaked in a sublicensing deal between Sky Italia and Mediaset that gave the former exclusive rights to matches featuring the other 12 teams in Serie A.