Ofcom closes investigation into Premier League’s UK audio-visual rights sale

11/08/16

On 8 August 2016 Ofcom closed its nearly two year investigation into the Premier League’s sale of its UK audio visual rights.

The investigation was opened on 18 November 2014 under section 25 of the Competition Act 1998 following a complaint from Virgin Media in September 2014. Ofcom investigated whether the object or effect of the Premier League’s joint selling arrangements is a restriction or distortion of competition in the UK or EU in breach of s.2(1) of the 1998 Act or Article 101(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In particular, Ofcom investigated the joint selling arrangements for the sale of live transmission rights for the 2016/17 to 2018/19 seasons and looked at how the rights were sold, including the number of matches for which live broadcast rights were offered and the packaging of those rights.

During the investigation the Premier League answered numerous requests for information and made a series of written submissions, including in response to Ofcom’s detailed ‘Case Update’ issued in March 2015 which summarised Ofcom’s initial thinking on whether there were competition concerns raised by the joint selling arrangements. 

Following the response to the Case Update and a resolution by the Premier League in June 2016 to sell rights for a number of additional matches to be broadcast live, Ofcom considered that there was a balance to be struck between the potential benefits to competition and consumers of releasing more matches for live broadcast and the potential adverse impact on match attending fans and concluded that the investigation no longer met its investigative priorities.

Ofcom's announcement can be found here.