Court rejects MediaPro deal

(ANSA) - Milan, May 9 - A Milan judge on Wednesday upheld the suspension of the awarding of Serie A TV rights to MediaPro after an appeal by satellite broadcaster Sky, saying the tender was not properly formulated and breached antitrust rules. MediaPro now has 15 days to appeal the decision.
    Judge Claudio Marangoni ruled that the tender that saw MediaPro win the domestic TV rights for the 2018-2021 period with an offer of 1,000 euros more than the minimum set out in the contract competition of 1.05 billion euros should be scrapped.
    The judge said MediaPro and Lega Serie A must re-evaluate the tender launched last month, following the challenge filed by Sky.
    The tender process had been suspended on April 16 after Sky Italia asked the court to decide whether it respected regulations.
    The judge also ordered the Italian affiliate of the Spanish audiovisual company to pay Sky's legal expenses for a total of 15,600 euros.
    Sky said the awarding of the rights to MediaPro was inadmissible as the competition was for companies acting as "independent intermediaries" but MediaPro was actually a full-blown communications group.
    Marangoni ruled that, by offering packages with "information and advertising content", MediaPro assumed a form of "editorial responsibility" that "positions it outside the sphere of its activity as an independent intermediary". It also said that MediaPro had practiced "abuse of a dominant position". The court rejected MediaPro's argument that the procedure that saw it win the TV rights was meant to expand the market, also noting that "consumer prices" of Serie A domestic TV rights would inevitably increase.
    The court said that the MediaPro deal would cause "serious imbalances in the market" and damage single operators.
    According to the judge, there is still time for the Spanish company to resume the tender "with a different content in its package proposals". Sky, which is currently Serie A's main rights partner, praised the ruling on Wednesday, saying it had provided "clarification".
    Serie A League Commissioner Giovanni Malagò said that the May 22 deadline for MediaPro to present bank guarantees in relation to the TV rights remained.