National team away fixtures are unlikely to be broadcast

Marketing agency SPORTFIVE owns the TV rights in the FIFA 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign of the Dutch team and is asking for €1m per game, but the country's major broadcasters, RTL, SBS, and the public broadcasters, have all refused to pay this amount which is almost double than the amount of what the broadcasters must pay for the home games. Dutch politicians questioned about the matter and were told said that national team matches were on an events list that legally prevents them from being broadcast exclusively on satellite channels. However, the government is unlikely to subsidies the games, and broadcasters must now persuade Sportfive to lower their demands.