Swisscable may challenge loss of football rights

Swiss public broadcaster SRG, and its partner Swisscable, has lost its rights to air live coverage of Swiss Super League football to pay TV broadcaster Tele Club’s owner Cinetrade, but Swisscable, the cable distributors’ network, has said it may challenge the decision.

The deal with Cinetrade will bring the league a reported CHF28 million (€24 million) per season for five years from 2012 for the rights to air all 180 games. The Super League could sell a further package to SRG that would give it the rights to broadcast 36 live games per season.

SRG and Swisscable said their offer was superior to that of Cinetrade and Swisscom if the cost of producing coverage of the games was taken into account. Swisscable has said that the league has not respected its own rules and has reserved the right to examine the legal validity of the decision.