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Italian Watchdog Dislikes TIM, DAZN Remedies In Soccer Streaming Probe

By  |  June 13, 2022

Italy’s antitrust body has rejected proposals by sport streaming service DAZN and its partner Telecom Italia as it investigates their deal to distribute top flight soccer games in Italy, a document showed on Monday.

The Italian competition authority last year opened an investigation into the partnership, under which TIM secured the right to include DAZN’s video app in its set top box on an exclusive basis, paying an annual fee of 340 million euros ($354 million).

DAZN had previously bought the rights to screen Serie A soccer matches for three seasons until 2024 for 2.5 billion euros.

While not imposing any precautionary measures at the time, Italy’s antitrust pressed on with the probe, opened in response to complaints from TIM’s rivals as well as consumer groups.

Both TIM and DAZN had submitted proposals in order to try to allay the regulator’s concerns over a potential restriction of competition in the telecoms and pay TV markets.

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