Swisscom sues UPC over ice hockey broadcasting rights
Swisscom has filed a complaint against UPC with the Competition Commission (Comco). In this way, the telecom giant is trying to get its hands on the pictures of the Swiss ice hockey championship after all.
UPC bought the broadcasting rights at auction last summer. From the coming 2017/2018 season, it will broadcast the games of the Swiss ice hockey leagues via its new sports TV station MySports. Swisscom lost out. UPC only submitted the signal to the Swiss cable network operators. 1.5 million Swisscom customers will thus have to do without live ice hockey on pay TV next season.
The previous rights holder, Swisscom subsidiary Teleclub, had ensured transmission to all networks - albeit with a reduced offer. The blue giant does not want to let this happen. Swisscom is fighting to ensure that its customers do not have to do without Swiss league ice hockey in the future and has therefore filed a complaint with the Weko, according to a statement from the company on Thursday.
Swisscom thus confirmed corresponding media reports. The online portal Watson had first reported on the lawsuit. The Weko confirmed to the news agency SDA that it had received the complaint. The complaint is being examined. At this stage, however, the competition authority cannot provide any further information.
Spicy prehistory
The dispute over TV broadcasting rights to sporting events has added another chapter. According to the Weko, Swisscom abused its dominant position in the past in the live broadcasting of Swiss soccer and ice hockey games on pay TV. As a result, cable network operators such as UPC were only given access to a reduced sports offering, and only a few ice hockey games could be seen live at any given time. For this reason, the Weko imposed a fine of almost CHF 72 million on Swisscom in 2016. Swisscom rejected the accusations and has moved on from the ruling. It argues that it only wanted to protect its high investments by withholding certain games from the competition.
In addition, Swisscom subsidiary Teleclub had already made an offer to all Swiss TV platform providers last year to put the full sports lineup on air. However, the cable network operators have so far refrained from making use of this offer.
UPC wants to "break monopoly
UPC is now turning the tables. The cable network operator does not want to offer Swisscom the auctioned rights under any circumstances. "With MySports, we have set ourselves the goal of breaking Swisscom/Teleclub's long-standing monopoly in the sports sector," says UPC spokesman Bernard Strapp. "To achieve this, we are investing a high contribution of millions. To protect this investment, we will not give the MySports signal to Swisscom." UPC has signed distribution agreements with 14 TV providers to pass on MySports, Strapp added. Additional partners may be added in the future.
Swisscom TV will continue to show field hockey matches, including games from the National Hockey League (NHL), the Champions Hockey League and the Ice Hockey World Championship. But the dispute over broadcasting rights is ultimately being fought out on the backs of consumers. Because if you want to have all the ice hockey and soccer games live on your screen, you have to be a customer of both Swisscom and UPC. (SDA)
