Italian watchdog says antitrust law violated in soccer rights sale-media

ROME, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Investigators at Italy's antitrust authority said Sky Italia and Mediaset (Other OTC: MDIEF - news) violated competition laws by divvying up Serie A soccer rights and excluding new entrants, according to a Sunday newspaper report that was confirmed by a source.

The antitrust body, known as the AGCM, began its investigation into a 2014 rights auction worth nearly 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion) per season in May last year, closing it in December.

Inspectors have written a report of their findings, but there has been no ruling on whether rules were broken. First (Other OTC: FSTC - news) the parties involved will be called to respond to the findings before a panel on Feb. 16, after which AGCM will announce its ruling.

But la Repubblica newspaper reported on Sunday, citing the 56-page document detailing the conclusions of the regulator's investigators, that the two companies "agreed to the outcome" of the rights auction, "blocking the entry of new operators".

An antitrust source confirmed the parts of the report cited by the newspaper.

Sky Italia, a unit of Sky Plc (LSE: BSY.L - news) , was not immediately available for comment. Mediaset did not comment. In May, when the investigation began, both companies said they had acted correctly.

Sky Italia and Mediaset were awarded rights in 2014 to broadcast matches of the eight main teams in the top tier of Italian soccer in the three seasons to 2018 after an auction that was delayed by legal complaints from rivals.

The official outcome of the auction was then tweaked in a deal that gave Sky Italia exclusive rights to broadcast matches of the other 12 teams in Serie A, a package initially awarded to Mediaset. ($1 = 0.9166 euros) (Reporting by Steve Scherer; editing by Susan Thomas)