Abstract

The distinctive features of football (its cooperative nature and the peculiar relationship between the cost of its major input - the players - and total revenues) imply that the structrure of the industry and its developement increasingly depend on television. Likewise the televison industry, and particularly pay-tv, has increasingly based its success on the exploitation of football broadcasting rights. This paper examines the main competition concerns arising from the interdependence between football and television: i) collective selling vs. individual selling of broadcasting rights and ii) range and duration of exclusive broadcasting rights. The paper suggests that these competition problems might require a new assesment in the perspective of a European Superleague and of a new configuration of the pay-tv market.