STREAM/TELEPIÙ
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
Tele+ is liable for abuse of a dominant position
At its meeting on 14 June 2000, in the light of the findings of the investigation it had instituted in March 1999, the Competition Authority resolved that the Tele+ company had committed an abuse of a dominant position under Article 82(b) of the EC Treaty, in that since May 1998 it had implemented a commercial policy for a period in excess of three years for the exclusive acquisition of the rights for the encrypted broadcasting of the most important Serie A and Serie B football championship matches. These rights related specifically to the broadcasting of the home matches played by the teams with the largest public following, such as Juventus, Milan, Inter and Napoli.
The investigation had revealed that Tele+ occupied a dominant position on the pay-TV market for various reasons: its huge market share (82% of total subscribers, but over 92% of the turnover in 1999); the fact that for over six years it had been the sole broadcasting company on the market (largely independent of consumers, and de facto obliging television rights suppliers to deal with it); and its easier access to the most popular programmes (in addition to its soccer broadcasting rights Tele+ owns some 60% of the rights to broadcast movies attracting the highest theatre box office revenues).
The Authority ruled that Tele 's conduct restricted competition, because it had acquired exclusive rights for the encrypted broadcasting of the bulk of the Serie A and Serie B soccer championship matches for a six-years period (1999-2005), thereby extending, indeed doubling, the period of exclusive broadcasting rights that had been previous standard practice in football broadcasting contracts, preventing its competitors (already operating on the market and possible new market entrants) from being able to offer the most popular programmes for a particularly long period of time.
The Authority also ruled that Tele+ had abused its dominant position by including several anticompetitive clauses in the contract for the cable distribution of soccer packages and programmes concluded with Stream in 1996. In particular, it had obliged Stream to agree that it would only broadcast via cable the soccer championship matches over which it had already acquired the broadcasting rights.
Tele+ was given 180 days within which you submit a report on the specific measures it had adopted to remove these abuses.
Rome, 21 June 2000