The International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration rejected Italian media company Mediaset’s claim for damages against pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia in a dispute about media rights for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Mediaset brought the case after claiming that Sky, which operates in Italy, had refused to enter discussions about a sub-licensing deal for the rights as it was obliged to do under a 2003 agreement between Sky operator and the European Commission.
Sky acquired exclusive pay-television rights in Italy for the tournament from public-service broadcaster Rai, which retained rights to show the biggest matches on free-to-air television. Mediaset, which wanted to show matches on its Mediaset Premium pay-television service, claimed that Sky could not refuse to sell on the digital-terrestrial pay-television rights if it received a reasonable offer.
However, in its ruling, the court said that the World Cup rights fell outside the European Commission agreement as they covered “an event that is not essential for the competitiveness of a competing television operator,” according to Sky Italia.
“At first, RTI (Mediaset)… asked the Court of Arbitration, as a matter of urgency, to make such rights available to other television operators before the start of the World Cup,” Sky Italia said after the ruling. “After renouncing the urgency measure, RTI asked for compensation for damages deriving from the missed broadcasting of the World Cup within its pay offer Mediaset Premium.”
Sky Italia added: “The court… confirmed the full legitimacy of Sky’s behaviour, completely rejecting the claims submitted by RTI.”