Portugal Antitrust Watchdog Scrutinizes NOS, PT Football TV Rights Deals

A spokesperson for the AdC watchdog said on Monday that Portugal's competition authority is scrutinizing "long-term deals worth hundreds of millions of euros to broadcast football league games signed by telecoms operators NOS and Altice's unit PT," according to Daniel Alvarenga of REUTERS. The spokesperson said that the authority was "concerned over the potentially excessive duration of the deals and exclusive rights that they entail as that may restrict competition in the market, and was collecting information about the deals." In the past two months, NOS and PT, the Portuguese unit of France's Altice, have signed deals worth a total of over €1.6B ($1.8B) "to broadcast games of premier league clubs." NOS "signed up Benfica and Sporting, and PT struck a deal with Porto." The rights are for "over 10 years in some cases." Various analysts have noted that "such long deals are banned by regulators in other European countries" (REUTERS, 2/1).