[ad_1]
- The UPC abused the television rights of the Swiss ice hockey championship.
- This is the conclusion of the Competition Commission (Weko).
- Because the UPC refused to broadcast ice hockey to Swisscom for years, it was fined 30 million francs.
The UPC had secured exclusive television rights for the Swiss ice hockey championship games for the years 2017 to 2022. Weko explained that it had abused its dominant position by rejecting any offer from Swisscom to broadcast ice hockey live until summer 2020.
The fans suffered
With this behavior, the UPC had impermissibly impeded Swisscom in the competition, Weko found. The cable network operator is fined 30 million Swiss francs for the refusal, which is inadmissible under antitrust law. The decision can be referred to the Federal Administrative Court.
Before that, Swisscom had dominated sports game streaming for years. Later, UPC went into the MySports business. As of the 2017 season, it was mostly fans who watched the tube – they had to subscribe to both Teleclub and MySports if they wanted to access the full load of sports.
The UPC and Swisscom have now agreed to make their sports content accessible to each other.
