News
U.K. regulator closes investigation triggered by Virgin Media complaint after Premier League commits to auctioning rights to more live games.
Ofcom on Monday announced it has closed a long-running investigation into the way the broadcast rights for Premier League football matches are allocated in the U.K.
The U.K. regulator said it decided not to proceed with the investigation in part because the number of Premier League football matches available for live broadcast will increase in future seasons.
Ofcom opened the probe in autumn 2014 following a complaint from cable operator Virgin Media, which expressed concerns over the anti-competitive nature of rights awards. Specifically, Virgin objected to the fact that there were proportionately fewer Premier League matches available for TV broadcast than in other top European leagues and alleged that this contributed to higher prices for consumers.
But Ofcom noted that the Premier League recently announced that it will increase the number of matches available for live broadcast in the U.K. to a minimum of 190 per season from the 2019/20 season.
"This will be an increase of at least 22 matches per season over the number sold for live broadcast in the Premier League’s auction in 2015," Ofcom said.
In February last year Sky and BT agreed to pay a combined £5.14 billion for football rights over three seasons from 2016/17 to 2018/19; Sky’s share was £4.2 billion for 126 games per season while BT won 42 games for £960 million.
"The Premier League’s decision to increase matches available in its next auction for live TV rights builds upon commitments given to the European Commission in 2006," Ofcom said.
It also noted that the next auction will carry a ‘no single buyer’ rule to prevent one broadcaster capturing all of the available rights. At least 42 games per season will be reserved for a second buyer, 30 of which must be weekend matches.
Ofcom said it took consumer research into account when making its decision. Amongst other things, one fifth of U.K. football fans wanted to see more live games, it revealed.
It also touched on the importance of kick-off times, noting that fans for the most part prefer to attend games at 3pm on Saturday afternoons.
As such, it highlighted the importance of striking a balance between having more televised games and the possible disruption to fans stemming from the rescheduling of games to do so, since the U.K. does not allow live football to be televised between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays.
However, it pointed out that more consumer research would be necessary to bring its investigation to a full conclusion.
"Given the considerations outlined above, we have decided to close the investigation. Ofcom’s resources could be used more effectively on other priorities to benefit consumers and competition," the regulator concluded.
