Swisscom has retained its rights to domestic club football’s Super League competition but has lost its contract with the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation, according to the telecommunications company’s chief executive, Urs Schaeppi.
In an interview with Swiss business newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft, Schaeppi said Swisscom has agreed terms on a four-season renewal with the Swiss Football League covering the 2017-18 to 2020-21 campaigns.
The SFL in April opened a tendering process for the media rights to the Super League and Challenge League, the top two divisions of the domestic game. National and international media rights were up for offer from the 2017-18 season onwards.
Schaeppi said: “We are pleased that Swisscom/Cinetrade received from the Football League the contract for the new assignment of the football sport rights from 2017-18 to 2020-21. The licence contract negotiations are still going on, so we can make no further information on the content.”
However, Schaeppi said Swisscom’s contract with the SIHF will not continue. The SFL and SIHF have yet to confirm their latest rights deals. In a statement issued last week, the SIHF said it is poised to make an announcement after receiving offers on June 21. The SIHF issued a rights tender on May 2 for rights from the 2017-18 season.
The news comes after Switzerland's Competition Commission last month fined Swisscom CHF71.8m (€64m/$72.5m) for abusing its dominant position in live sports broadcasting on pay television.
Swisscom has vowed to lodge an appeal against the ruling with the Federal Administrative Court and, if necessary, the Federal Supreme Court.
“The Swisscom group with its subsidiaries, CT Cinetrade and Teleclub, holds a dominant position, particularly with respect to live broadcasting of Swiss football and ice hockey championship games on pay television,” the regulator had said. “Swisscom has abused this position against competing TV platform operators in order to restrain competitors in platform competition.”