Portugal’s media regulator, the ERC, has refused to accept a proposed deal for telecommunications company Portugal Telecom to acquire a 25-per-cent stake in Portuguese pay-television broadcaster Sport TV.
The watchdog has given Portugal Telecom, as well as the Zon Multimedia and Sportinveste media companies, Sport TV’s other shareholders, six months to amend “non-competition clauses” in the arrangement, according to the Publico news website.
The report added that the regulator had raised concerns that the deal includes stipulations that would stifle competition between the different shareholders. It is feared by some observers that the deal, which has been awaiting regulatory approval for more than a year, would further strengthen the dominant position of the Olivedesportos agency, which is controlled by businessman Joaquim Oliveira, who is also a co-owner of Sport TV.
The Autoridade da Concorrência, Portugal’s competition regulator, said last August that it would undertake a “thorough investigation” into the proposed new ownership model of Sport TV. Two months earlier, Mário Figueiredo, the president of the Portuguese Liga, said that the country’s top division of football would appeal to the European Commission if the deal was not blocked by domestic regulators.