Teleclub receives competition from Great Britain
The British sports rights giant Perform Group plans to establish itself in Switzerland as well and, among other things, offer soccer matches from top leagues.
For years, Swisscom subsidiary Teleclub had "its peace" and dominated the Swiss sports broadcasting market due to a lack of competition in the pay TV segment. That could now change. As Schweiz am Sonntag writes in its current issue, the British Perform Group is planning a platform for the Internet and mobile devices in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on which live broadcasts can be purchased and streamed. The offering will include not only 250 games a year from the U.S. basketball league NBA, but also Premier League soccer matches. The English league, which is also extremely popular in Switzerland, was previously denied to Teleclub customers in this country.
However, the Premier League will not be the only one: In the future, it will also be possible to buy games from the Spanish, Italian and French leagues via the service. However, the company is still keeping quiet about pricing and subscription models. For the time being, the market entry of the new competitor will have no consequences for Teleclub customers, as the Perform Group does not hold exclusive Premier League rights in Switzerland. This is in contrast to France, where Canal+ will no longer show the matches of the next three seasons as a result of the exclusive marketing of the Premier League by the Perform Group. This has consequences for the French-speaking part of Switzerland: the possibility to watch the matches via Canal+, which is available via Swisscom-TV, will now be eliminated. (hae)
