JOHANNESBURG – The Competition Commission on Tuesday said, it decided not to refer the complaints against Multichoice South Africa and Supersport International to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution.
The commission said that it received various complaints of abuse of dominance against Multichoice and Supersport between 2012 and 2017.
"Following its investigation, the commission has decided not to prosecute because there are no reasonable prospects of success and a regulatory intervention would be more effective," it said.
The commission said that there was potential market failure in this market mentioning factors including the highly concentrated nature of the subscription television market, the high barriers to effectively enter the market and the inability of other existing firms to expand in the market as well as the lack of credible alternative buyers for premium sports rights other than Multichoice.
"While the commission is concerned of the likely market failure, it is of the view that there can be more targeted regulatory interventions to foster competition and make this market competitive," it said.
"In this regard, the commission has taken note of the inquiry into subscription broadcasting services currently being conducted by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), which covers a greater scope than the complaints received by the commission."
The commission said it would continue to contribute to the inquiry and support the work of Icasa in line with the terms of the existing Memorandum of Understanding between the two regulators.