In late 2015/early 2016, the telecom operators NOS and NOS Lusomundo Audiovisuais established exclusive agreements with several football clubs competing in the First and Second Leagues. According to the AdC, the scope, duration and asynchronism of the agreements would likely create strong barriers to competition in the market for the acquisition of media rights of football events played regularly throughout the year.
However, the sequence of events that occurred in the Portuguese market, including the changes in the shareholding structure of Sport TV, required an overarching intervention from the AdC that addressed all the competition concerns identified.
Against this background, the AdC issued a Recommendation to the Government to adopt legislation concerning the auctioning of the media rights of the national premier and second leagues. The selling of the media rights would be carried out through regular auctions organized by the national league and subject to a set of rules approved by the AdC.