Swisscable has pressed the competition commission for a quick completion of the current sports rights investigation.
In May Weko rejected a proposal from the cable association that all its members should have access to sports content acquired by Cinetrade. It follows the launch by Weko into a suspected abuse of a dominant position by Cinetrade/Teleclub after the pay-TV operator signed an exclusive agreement with IPTV operator Swisscom for the Teleclub Sport and Teleclub Live Sport channels, shutting out the 2.7 million cable TV subscrivers in Switzerland.
“Swiss TV viewers have today been forced with inflated prices to fund the Swisscom/Teleclub monopoly,” said Eric Tveter, managing director, UPC Cablecom. “Unfortunately the competition commission initially waived immediate measures. More urgent now is a speedy conclusion of the ongoing investigation. Because only the opening of the market leads to lower prices for customers and higher revenue for the sports clubs, thanks to the additional number of viewers.”
Weko said that any subscribers lost in the intermediate period could be won back after the completion of the process.