The UK’s Competition & Markets Authority on Wednesday said that BT Group PLC and ITV PLC are among those being investigated for possibly breaching competition law in the field of sports broadcasting.

The CMA said the investigation relates to the purchase of freelance services to support production and broadcasting of sports content.

The UK watchdog is also investigating IMG Media Ltd, including Premier League Productions, and Sky UK Ltd.

‘At this stage the CMA believes it has reasonable grounds to suspect one or more breaches of competition law. The CMA has not reached a view as to whether there is sufficient evidence of an infringement of competition law for it to issue a statement of objections to any party or parties,’ the CMA said.

ITV noted the announcement and said it is ‘committed to complying with competition law and is cooperating with the CMA’s inquiries’.

BT broadcasts sport through its BT Sport channels.

Back in June, the CMA also launched a merger enquiry into a sports broadcasting joint venture between BT and Warner Bros Discovery Inc.

In May, telecommunications firm BT agreed to a sports broadcasting joint venture with Warner Bros Discovery. The 50-50 joint venture would see BT Sports and Eurosport combine.

Once complete, the production and operational assets of BT Sport would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros. BT would get £93 million from Warner Bros and up to £540 million by way of an earn-out.

The BT and Warner Bros investigation has a deadline of July 28 for its phase one decision.

Shares in BT were down 1.8% to 193.00 pence each in London on Wednesday morning, meanwhile shares in ITV were also down 0.9% to 65.20p each.

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