Shake up for TV football

[k69atie]

The nature of televised football in the UK is to change after the European Commission and the Premier League settled a dispute over the sale of rights.

Under the agreement, a single company will not be allowed to show all the live Premier League matches broadcast in the UK.

The Premier League will sell six packages of matches, with no one bidder allowed to bid for all six.

The deal ends BSkyB's exclusive hold on live Premier League football, a position it has held for the last 13 years.

The Commission said: "The commitments offered by the Premier League should ensure that the media rights are sold in a fair and transparent manner and give British football fans greater choice and better value."

The new system for selling rights will be brought in for the 2007/8 season.

Packages will be sold to the highest bidder for each individual package, and the rights auction will be monitored by a trustee selected by the Commission.

The Commission said that until the deal, it had been worried that the League's plans for 2007 onwards "deprived media operators and British football fans of choice, led to higher prices and reduced innovation".

There had also been the threat of the Commission taking legal action against the Premier League.

 

[Duke]

That sucks. I hope not that English footy fans now have to switch channels all the damn time to watch their team =/

The Commission said: "The commitments offered by the Premier League should ensure that the media rights are sold in a fair and transparent manner and give British football fans greater choice and better value."

Tossers. Theyre just making money.

 

[Jibster]

That sucks. I hope not that English footy fans now have to switch channels all the damn time to watch their team =/

Tossers. Theyre just making money.

Not at all, this was a ruling to end Sky's monopoly on live Premier League games, i think it's an excellent decision, there hasn't been a top domestic league match broadcast on UK terrestrial TV for 13 years, they'd have made more money selling it exclusively to Sky but the EPL has been overruled.