Tackling Monopolies

             Fans are paying more to watch sport every year. Is it time for governments to intervene?
             MONOPOLY in sport is suddenly a sensitive issue. The escalating cost of watching games is pushing anti-trust authorities to examine the deals between sporting bodies and broadcasters. Britain's competition watchdog is scrutinising English football. The European Commission now has several investigations under way into restrictive practices in European football and monopolistic behaviour in Formula One motor racing. And an American court recently ruled that the National Basketball Association (NBA) could not prevent the Chicago Bulls selling rights to games that are not broadcast as part of the NBA's exclusive television deal.
             Money is pouring into sport because viewers are willing to cough up a lot to watch it. They pay for it in different-and mainly indirect-ways: through taxes to finance public-service television; through time spent watching additional advertising during matches broadcast on commercial networks; in subscription fees to cable or satellite channels; or directly, on a pay-per-view basis. But viewers are paying over the odds because sporting authorities are able to use their control over the supply of games to force up the price of TV rights. America's National Football League (NFL) is negotiating eight-year deals worth a total of $15 billion with several American TV networks. BSkyB, which broadcasts via satellite in Britain, is paying the English Premier League £620m ($1 billion) over four seasons for the rights to a fraction of its matches.
             Striking down exclusive broadcasting deals might somewhat lower the cost of watching sport. But this would not solve the problem entirely; in the case of the NFL, the league has managed to apportion rights among several broadcasters in such a way as to maximise its profits. This suggests that the purveyors of sport are exercising monopoly
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