Ice hockey on pay TV: Weko waives measures against UPC

The authority is not taking any precautionary measures, although there are indications of anti-competitive behavior by the company. The Weko concluded that the preconditions for precautionary measures were not met, it announced on Wednesday.

In May 2017, the Weko had opened an investigation against UPC Switzerland on suspicion of abuse of a dominant position in the area of ice hockey broadcasting on pay-TV (Werbewoche.ch reported). The main issue here is whether UPC is unjustifiably withholding ice hockey broadcasts from competing TV platform providers, in particular those that do not operate via the cable network.

The Weko subsequently had to examine an application by Swisscom for the imposition of precautionary measures. Among other things, precautionary measures can only be imposed if there is a risk of an irreparable adverse effect on competition if they are not imposed and the investigation is not concluded. The Weko does not consider this to be the case.

"Any other decision would have been paradoxical"

As a result, the MySports channel will go live with UPC's planned distribution model as planned on September 8. "This decision by the Weko does not come as a surprise to us and we feel vindicated in our previous path," Eric Tveter, CEO UPC, said in a statement Wednesday. "MySports is an important step towards effective competition and will break up the previous unfair monopoly in sports rights in Switzerland." It added: "It would have been downright paradoxical if the Weko had ruled in this case in favor of the very company that had abused its dominant position for years. We look forward to the further investigation with great confidence," says Tveter.

Swisscom is not giving up yet

Swisscom, on the other hand, reminds in a statement that the final decision is still pending and that it will therefore continue to fight for its own field hockey fans. "The fact that the field hockey fans among our customers are the only group to be locked out is clearly discrimination. We regret this decision," says Dirk Wierzbitzki, Head of Products and Marketing and member of the Group Executive Board at Swisscom.

Swisscom goes on to write that it has so far played fair and opened up Teleclub's full sports offering as rights holder for football broadcasts to all interested TV platforms - but that cable operators have refrained from making use of it. "10 years ago, we built up a comprehensive ice hockey editorial department from nothing and thus established ice hockey as a TV sport in Switzerland as well," says Wierzbitzki. "That's why it's particularly important for us to be able to continue to report comprehensively in the future, and we'll keep fighting. As sports fans, we are of course not giving up so quickly." (hae/SDA/pd)