In July 2016, all the telecom operators active in the downstream markets for pay-tv and multiple-play offers, notably NOS, PT, Vodafone and Nowo, established an agreement under which the parties agree to grant access to the media rights individually owned (currently and in the future) and to share the purchasing costs of such rights (sharing media rights agreement).
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.