EU DECISION CLEARS WAY FOR FOOTBALL TV BIDDING

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According to Reuters, England’s Football Association (FA) Premiere League has gained approval from the European Commission to divide its TV rights between at least two broadcasters. The move should open the bidding for the rights between bSkyb and rival broadcasters.

“The solution we have reached will benefit football fans while allowing the Premier League to maintain its timetable for the sale of its rights,” EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement.

bSkyb has held exclusive rights to all Premier League live games since the league’s inception. It’s widely accepted that the company will win rights to five of the six programming packages, with Ireland’s Setanta Sports and UK’s NTL the favorites to become the second broadcaster. BBC, ITV and Channel 5 are also considering bids.

The rights up for bid include television, mobile and Internet rights, all of which must be sold in an open, competitive process. In order to eliminate the disputes that accompanied previous negotiations, an independent trustee will examine the entire process.

Under the current guidelines, each package will be sold individually, with multi-package bids to be disregarded. The rule was put in place to prevent bSkyb from offering a bid for all packages, a practice it employed last time the league’s TV rights were up for bid. Any violation could result in fines of up to 10 percent of the Premier League’s overall turnover.