EC Deems Mobile TV Rights to UK Football Should be up for Grabs

March 26, 2006 - source: BWCS

The European Commission has today approved a deal proposed by the English Premier League to divide the TV rights between at least two broadcasters. The move, which has been long expected, will see satellite pay-TV broadcaster BSkyB lose its monopoly on the lucrative rights to Premiership football games. However, the deal will also allow companies to bid for the rights to broadcast matches on mobile handsets.

Under the terms of the EU deal, at least one of the six proposed packages of matches must be sold to a broadcaster other than BSkyB. So far, UK cable company NTL, which is trying to buy Virgin Mobile for an improved offer of £961 million, is one of the front-runners in the race for rights. However, the BBC, ITV, Channel 5 and Irish satellite TV company, Setanta are also likely to throw their hats into the ring.

The commitments made under the deal involve television, mobile and Internet rights, which are to be sold in an open and competitive bidding process. The EU said the new commitments made until the end of the 2012-2013 season "will increase the availability of media rights, and improve the prospect of competition in providing services to consumers."