United Media has confirmed a decision by the Luxembourg regulator ALIA in checking alleged violations of rules regarding the rights to broadcast major sporting events.
According to N1, which like United Media is part of United Group, the Slovenian regulator AKOS brought about the case. In the regulator’s view, United Media’s Sportklub, which is registered in Luxembourg, should have transmitted the qualifying matches of the Slovenian basketball team for the 2023 World Cup.
However, ALIA ruled that Sportklub is under the jurisdiction of Luxembourg. Furthermore, it stated that the national list of major events must be notified under a special procedure in accordance with Article 14 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and published in the Official Journal of the European Union in order to be valid and binding on other European Union member states and broadcasters under its jurisdiction. Otherwise, the national list cannot apply to issuers established in another member state of the European Union.
According to ALIA, the list was not notified and published in the Official Journal of the European Union, so it does not bind Sportklub.
In its comments following the ruling, United Media went on to say: “At the same time, United Media is taking advantage of this opportunity and once again calls on the competent Slovenian authorities to act in accordance with their powers and to deal with the complaints filed several times regarding the coordinated refusal of major local telecommunications operators to negotiate the distribution of television channels on the basis of reasonable and transparent conditions that have been proactively offered several times in the past years. With this, the competent Slovenian authorities would act in the best interest of Slovenian viewers and ensure the wide availability of television broadcasts of important sports events, which some local operators claim to be top-notch, but it seems that they are not ready to pay fair market prices for them”.
