MILAN (Reuters) - Mediaset and Sky Italia, a unit of Sky Plc (LON:SKYB), have been fined 55.4 million euros (43.61 million pound) by Italy's antitrust authority for breaching competition laws during the 2014 sale of soccer TV rights, the authority said on Wednesday.
The two broadcasters were accused of creating a cartel to carve up the rights to show matches of the top eight Italian teams in the 2015-2018 seasons, squeezing out competitors.
In a statement, the competition watchdog said it had fined the pay TV unit of Mediaset, owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, 51.4 million euros.
Sky Italia, whose largest shareholder is media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, was fined 4 million euros.
Mediaset and Sky Italia were not immediately available to comment.
Earlier this month, Mediaset sold pay TV unit Premium to French media giant Vivendi (PA:VIV).
The auction of the TV rights, worth nearly 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) a season, had been delayed due to protests from rival bidders about the lack of transparency.
The watchdog launched its investigation in May last year, after the offices of the Milan-based broadcaster and satellite TV group were raided in a broader inquiry of match-rigging.
A first stage of the investigation was closed in December and the parties involved were called to respond to the findings before a panel in February.
The antitrust authority also fined Lega Calcio, which manages Serie A football, 1.9 million euros and its Swiss-based adviser Infront 9 million euros.
Infront will appeal the decision, a source close to the matter said.