Brussels, 08/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has closed its investigation regarding the acquisition of broadcasting rights to Spanish football by Audiovisual Sport (AVS). This follows significant changes brought in the past by the joint venture between Telefónica and Sogecable to their jointly-held rights which had the effect of granting access to football by new cable and digital terrestrial television operators.
On 30 September 1999 Sogecable and Telefónica de Contenidos notified an agreement to the Commission in which they pooled forces to acquire and exploit the broadcasting rights to Spanish First League football matches for 11 seasons ending in 2009 through their Audiovisual Sport joint venture, known as Audiovisual Sport II. The Commission took the view that the agreement amounted to an unacceptable monopolisation of the rights by the two main TV platforms for a very long period of time and warned, on 11 April 2000, that it would impose fines unless the accord was terminated or significantly modified. The next month Telefónica and Sogecable announced that they would give entrants in the Spanish cable and digital terrestrial television markets access to the football rights and accepted that such competitors would be free to set their own pay-per-view prices. Although this development immediately exerted a downward pressure on TV subscription prices a few issues remained but the Commission's discussions with the parties were suspended by the announcement, in 2002, of the full merger between Vía Digital and Sogecable. This merger was authorised by the Spanish authorities subject to conditions that abolished the renewal options held by AVS on the football rights, guaranteed third parties' access to the rights under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions and established that the merged entity would not have exclusive use of the new media rights. Access to the football rights was be subject to an arbitration mechanism. The Commission noted that these conditions created greater competition in re-broadcasting football matches in Spain. Sogecable has agreed to buy Telefónica's stake in AVS, terminating the agreement notified to the Commission. The Commission points out that it will continue to follow carefully the behaviour of the companies concerned as well as others in other countries in the fast-changing media markets.