The Italian competition authority, AGCM, has halved a €7.2 million ($8.40 million) fine imposed on sports subscription streaming service DAZN in mid-2023. The fine was linked to a domestic coverage deal for Italy's top-tier soccer league, Serie A.
DAZN's penalty has been reduced from €7.2 million to €3.6 million while Telecom Italia (TIM)'s €760,000 fine remains unchanged. These fines were initially levied following an investigation by the AGCM into TIM’s three-year exclusive distribution deal with DAZN for its coverage of Serie A.
This partnership sparked controversy among some operators in Italy, including pay-TV broadcaster Sky Italia who filed an appeal with the AGCM claiming that the agreement was "illegitimate" and further solidified TIM’s dominant position in the broadband market.
Investigation into anti-competitive practices
At that time, TIM also held the title sponsorship for Serie A league. The AGCM launched an investigation to determine if this agreement restricted competition from other telecom operators and found that it granted exclusivity favoring TIM which eliminated any chance of DAZN partnering with other telco competitors.
The authority concluded that this arrangement could have negatively impacted competitive dynamics within connectivity services markets as well as retail sales of pay-TV services.
However, after reassessment due to issues found with the original investigation and its rationale behind imposing such hefty fines last June, DAZN's financial penalty was cut down by half. The Council of State reportedly discovered insufficient evidence linking responsibility for antitrust actions directly to DAZN Media Services which led to this revised decision on penalties.
Overview of distribution deals
In 2021, shortly after securing rights for most Serie A fixtures in a €2.5 billion deal, DAZN entered into a distribution agreement with TIM. This deal granted DAZN exclusive rights to seven matches per match week and co-exclusive rights to the remaining three matches for the 2021-22 to 2023-24 cycle.
The remaining three matches were shared with Sky Italia in an agreement worth €262.5 million over three seasons. For the ongoing 2024-25 to 2028-29 domestic rights cycle, DAZN covers every Serie A game live while Sky shows only three per matchday. The total value of this deal is approximately €1 billion.
TIM's over-the-top platform, TimVision, also struck a similar wide-ranging distribution agreement with DAZN for this cycle which allows it to broadcast all ten weekly matches.
When announcing its original decision on fines, AGCM stated that the DAZN-TIM partnership resulted in TIM marketing "a bundle offer not replicable by its competitors," including both TimVision and DAZN content along with connectivity service. This recent reduction of fine imposed on DAZN signifies an important development within Italy’s sports broadcasting landscape and could potentially influence future partnerships between telecom operators and streaming services.
