Broadcasters fined £4.2m for sharing freelancers' pay rates

The BBC, ITV, BT and the sports production company IMG have been fined £4.2m for illegally sharing information about fees for freelance workers at football and rugby matches.

- Jasper Jolly

The sharing of information, which breached competition law, affected workers such as camera operators and sound technicians, according to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

The regulator opened an investigation into possible cartel-like behaviour in 2022, after it was tipped off by Sky, which broadcasts hundreds of Premier League football matches each year.

Sky was found to be responsible for 10 instances of anti-competitive behaviour, but escaped a fine by alerting the CMA itself.

Producers at the broadcasters shared pay details with one another to try to limit pay for the freelancers on whom much of the TV industry depends. The CMA said that "in most cases, the explicit aim was to coordinate how much to pay freelancers" between 2014 and 2021.