BT, Sky and ITV have been accused of wrongful collusion to fix wages for freelance sports production staff.
The Competition and Market Authority (CMA) has: launched an investigation into broadcasters BT, Sky and ITV and production company IMG Media after finding “reasonable grounds” to suspect one or more violations of the law by the four companies.
The CMA said it had not yet reached a conclusion on whether there was enough evidence of law violations to punish the companies. The investigation is in the information gathering phase.
UK competition authority has the power to fine companies up to 10 per cent of turnover and make changes to their practices if found to be infringing competition laws
Some of Britain’s largest broadcasters hire freelance technical staff, such as camera crews and sound engineers, to produce their sports coverage in the UK.
The inquiry comes as ITV is poised to broadcast a slew of matches from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. BT recently acquired the majority of UK rights to the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.
Sky is one of the largest broadcasters of live sports in the UK and has the most rights to broadcast Premier League football matches.
IMG Media claims to be one of the largest producers of sports shows in the world and distributes more than 45,000 hours of sports coverage every year.
Those services include producing Premier League coverage for international broadcasters and creating sports studios for the likes of Wimbledon and Amazon Prime’s sports shows.
In a statement, ITV said it “complied with competition law” and cooperated with the CMA’s investigation.
BT said: “It is clear that CMA’s investigation is very specific to the purchase of freelance services and not to other aspects of BT Sport or broader BT Group business.”
A spokesperson for Sky said: “We are fully cooperating with the CMA.”
IMG Media was approached for comment.