20th May 2015 05:19
Rome (Alliance News) - The Italian antitrust authority has placed under investigation the Lega Serie A, two pay TV networks and a marketing company over an alleged scheme to lower television broadcast rights, the ANSA news agency reported Tuesday.
Police searched the offices of the Lega, Sky Italia, Mediaset and its controlled company, and media marketing firm Infront Italy earlier in the day.
The searches stemmed from an investigation that the antitrust authority launched into last June's bid, which was won by Sky Italia and Mediaset.
Sky is said to have paid 572 million euros (639 million dollars) to broadcast the games of the whole Serie A for three seasons from August 2015 to June 2018. Mediaset got the top eight teams of the league for 373 million euros.
The authority, however, suspects that the overall figure of 945 million euros was lower than the minimum amount set for the bid and that the Lega did not act to obtain the highest possible amount for the clubs.
It appears that the bidding process did not comply with EU rules on free trade and was rigged to prevent the participation of other networks.
Eurosport, one of the unsuccessful bidders, had complained about possible irregularities when the rights were assigned last year.
Copyright dpa
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