The hardcore fan has to pay heavily for field hockey and football

For years, everything was simple and straightforward: If you wanted the full load of live sports on TV, you had to sign up for Swisscom TV and a subscription to Swisscom subsidiary Teleclub. From Swiss soccer and ice hockey to the major soccer leagues of Germany, England, Spain, France or Italy, all the games were available there in live broadcasts.

That is now over: Cable network operator UPC (formerly Cablecom) has snatched the broadcasting rights for the Swiss ice hockey championship and the vast majority of German Bundesliga soccer matches from Swisscom. The English Premier League and the Spanish La Liga with German commentary already went to the internet streaming service Dazn in 2016.

Sky pushes into Switzerland

By contrast, Swisscom was able to retain the Swiss Football Championship and the Champions League, as well as the Italian and most of the French football leagues.

At the same time, the German pay-TV giant Sky entered the Swiss market itself, having previously sold its live matches to Swisscom subsidiary Teleclub. With the new Sky app, Swisscom, Sunrise and UPC customers can now also watch the Bundesliga and Champions League, but they have to pay extra.

This means that there will no longer be a full-service provider for live matches. For viewers who want to watch soccer and ice hockey, it will be considerably more expensive than before.

UPC cheapest

Sports fans get off cheapest with UPC, where they can get the new MySports sports channel and the Teleclub sports package for CHF 1832 a year. That's a good 200 francs more than Swisscom's all-inclusive offer last year, which is now no longer available.

It's even more expensive for competitors Swisscom and Sunrise. Swisscom charges 1,600 francs for its sports offer including Bundesliga via the Sky app, as telecom expert Ralf Beyeler calculated at the request of the sda news agency (excluding special offers). However, this does not include any games from the Swiss ice hockey championship, because UPC boss Eric Tveter does not want to make the archrival a retransmission offer. So the Swiss soccer and ice hockey fan also has to order UPC. This means that 2576 francs per year will be due.

At Sunrise, together with UPC, it is 2838 francs. However, the cheapest TV offer from Sunrise is better than that from Swisscom, said Beyeler.

Those who still want the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga with German commentary from streaming provider Dazn pay an additional 155 francs per year. "If you want to watch all the sports today that you used to have with one provider, you have to take out three subscriptions," said a telecom executive at a smaller cable network operator.

"Fans are looking down the tube," judged telecom expert Beyeler: "It's become more complicated to receive sporting events on TV."

Fragmentation of sports rights

Swisscom CEO Urs Schaeppi also complained about this: the sports rights market, which used to be very homogeneous, had become totally fragmented. In order to retain customers or win new ones, Swisscom and Sunrise have launched hefty discount campaigns for the next few months, which can save a lot of money.

How long sports fans will put up with the spinning price spiral is not clear. It is logical that fans are not happy because they have to buy several subscriptions, said FC Basel President Bernhard Burgener, whose company Highlight Communications is active in sports rights marketing.

"But at some clubs, fans would pay any price just to get into a sold-out stadium. The pain threshold is very individual," Burgener said in an interview with the business magazine Bilanz. "As long as the demand is greater than the supply, it works. Look at the revenues generated in the U.S. with the NFL or the NBA, what fans there are willing to pay for their club," Burgener said.

For casual sports fans, Swisscom and Sunrise offer the option of buying individual matches, while UPC and numerous other cable network operators offer day passes.

Criticism also from consumer protection

The Foundation for Consumer Protection (SKS) is also critical: "The new constellation as of the 2017/2018 season is unsatisfactory for Swiss sports fans," explained André Bähler of the SKS. Since the rights for Swiss ice hockey and soccer are held by different providers, receiving the full range of live matches has become more expensive and complicated, he said. "Especially for sports fans with a tight budget, the prices are very high," criticized Bähler.

Depending on the circumstances, creative solutions are also possible: "Maybe a neighbor subscribes to the ice hockey games while you buy the soccer subscription yourself, and you then watch the games together," Bähler suggested. (Johannes Brinkmann/SDA)