How Does Online Streaming Affect Antitrust Remedies to Centralized Marketing? The Case of European Football Broadcasting Rights

The collective sale of football broadcasting rights constitutes a cartel, which, in the European Union, is only allowed if it complies with a number of conditions and obligations, including inter alia, partial unbundling, and the no-single-buyer rule. These regulations were defined with traditional...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of sport finance Vol. 14; no. 3; pp. 147 - 157
Main Authors Budzinski, Oliver, Gaenssle, Sophia, Kunz-Kaltenhäuser, Philipp
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Morgantown FiT Publishing 01.08.2019
Fitness Information Technology Inc
Fitness Information Technology, A Division of ICPE West Virginia University
Subjects
Antitrust
Associations
Cartels
Competition (Economics)
Competition policy
Consumers
Economics
Internet services
Marketing
Media rights
Political economy
Prices
Professional soccer
Revenue sharing
Soccer teams
Sports fans
Sports television programs
Streaming media
Streaming services
Team sports
United Kingdom
Germany
Europe
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Summary:The collective sale of football broadcasting rights constitutes a cartel, which, in the European Union, is only allowed if it complies with a number of conditions and obligations, including inter alia, partial unbundling, and the no-single-buyer rule. These regulations were defined with traditional TV-markets in mind. However, the landscape of audiovisual broadcasting is quickly changing, with online streaming services gaining popularity and relevance. This also alters the effects of the conditions and obligations for the centralized marketing arrangements. Partial unbundling may lead to increasing instead of decreasing prices for consumers. Moreover, the combination of partial unbundling and the no-single-buyer rule forces consumers into multiple subscriptions to several streaming services, which increases transaction costs. Consequently, competition authorities need to rethink the conditions and obligations they impose on centralized marketing arrangements in football. We recommend restricting the exclusivity of (live-) broadcasting rights and mandate third-party access to program guide information to redesign the remedies.
ISSN:1558-6235
1930-076X
1930-076X
DOI:10.32731/IJSF/143.082019.02