German authority look into Premiere-Arena pact

The German cartel authority said there is a routine probe into an agreement between Premiere and Arena to show Bundesliga matches on cable TV.

"There are no initial suspicions connected to this investigation. We are constantly watching this market," said a spokeswoman for the Bundeskartellamt.

After losing Bundesliga rights to Arena this past December, pay-TV broadcaster Premiere has been trying to show the matches when the new season begins on Aug. 11.

Last week, Arena and Premiere agreed to show the games to cable viewers jointly, using an existing agreement Premiere has with Germany's largest cable operator, Kabel Deutschland (KDG), after Arena failed to get a distribution deal with KDG.

A German newspaper reported that the cartel authority was probing the deal between Premiere and Arena to see if it was in violation of anti-trust rules.

"We are cooperating with the cartel office," a Premiere spokesman said. "We consider the contract to be legal and our cooperation with Arena to be unproblematic. It's a routine procedure."

Premiere shares, which lost almost half of their value on a single day in December when it was announced Arena had won the rights, were up 2.5 percent at EUR 9.81 at 1419 GMT.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.