BSKYB TO LOSE STRANGLEHOLD
ON PREMIERSHIP FOOTY
 British
Sky Broadcasting risks losing its stranglehold on live top-flight
English football following a decision by the Premier League on Thursday
to split its main media rights package.
The football body has changed the shape of its next live UK package,
which starts at the beginning of the 2004-05 season, to reflect
the concerns of the European Commission. The commission wants to
see more matches on television and more competition among broadcasters
The league's decision to break up the broadcasting rights, which
are currently held by BSkyB, follows months of talks.
The commission has indicated that it favours the changes made by
the league to the structure of the rights package. In offering three
live packages, the league has cleared the way for BBC and ITV to
win some live rights to Premier League football for the first time
since the competition was launched in 1992. It has offered 138 games
in the three packages - 32 more than in the current deal.
Richard Scudamore, the league's chief executive, said: "We
have now reached a point where we can go and test some of the agreements
we have reached with [the commission]."
However, Mario Monti, European competition commissioner, could
raise concerns if the new broadcasting rights to live games went
to the same broadcaster.
Competition experts said yesterday that if a company - such as
BSkyB - were to buy all the packages on offer, Brussels could take
action to prevent it from gaining a dominant position.
Analysts expect BSkyB to fight to retain its exclusivity. Clubs
are also thought to favour keeping the company as a broadcast partner
because BSkyB is expected to offer less than the current £1bn
deal if its exclusivity is broken.
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