Weko reviews Cinetrade
Cinetrade holds a 49% stake in Swisscom and awards the majority of Swisscom's football broadcasting rights. The Competition Commission is now interested in the market conditions.
The same is now emerging for ice hockey. Cinetrade is to secure live exclusivity during the qualifiers in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, as the NZZ writes on Sunday. SRG could then also broadcast live matches. And the cable network operators would in turn not have access to all matches.
But now the Competition Commission is also said to be interested in the market conditions for pay-TV. This is revealed by research carried out by NZZ am Sontag. The Secretariat of the Competition Commission has informed the market participants in a letter that it has opened a preliminary investigation "in the matter of Cinetrade": "We have indications of a possible unlawful restriction of competition within the meaning of Article 7 of the Cartel Act," confirmed Carole Söhner, Deputy Director of the Competition Commission, according to NZZ am Sontag. Article 7 of the Cartel Act deals with unlawful conduct by dominant companies.
Swisscom is relaxed about the Weko initiative; after all, this is only a preliminary investigation. According to NZZ am Sontag, Swisscom spokesman Sepp Huber says that there are no accusations or suspicions as yet. And: "The competition for sports broadcasting rights is on". As a distributor of such content, Swisscom has committed itself to Cinetrade. Broadcasting rights for football or ice hockey are awarded exclusively and for a limited period of time, Huber continued according to NZZ am Sontag. This means that there is open competition in every tender round.
