Ofcom
has opened an investigation into how the Premier League sells live TV media
rights for its football matches in the UK.
It
follows a complaint from Virgin Media, which was submitted to Ofcom in
September.
BSkyB
and BT currently share the rights to televise Premier League football games.
The
price for the latest rights deal - covering 2013-16 - rose by 70% to £3bn when
it was announced in 2012.
Ofcom
investigates where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting an agreement may
be intended to prevent, restrict or distort competition. It says the probe will
carried out under the terms of the Competition Act.
Number of games
The
Premier League will soon be starting the bidding process for the next tranche
of rights from 2016 onwards.
But
Virgin claims that
