BSkyB’s monopoly over top-flight English football looks set to come to an end after the European Commission warned it will force the Premier League to auction off its football right packages individually.
The EC insists it will not be pressured into letting BSkyB walk away with all three gold, silver and bronze packages of 138 live matches and said that any attempt by the broadcaster to demand exclusive rights would result in a fresh inquiry (see
EC Could Obstruct New Sky Football Deal).
A spokesman for the EC told the Independent On Sunday: “We are going to investigate this in the context of the bidding process. The outcome of one bid should not in any way prejudice the outcome of other bids. We want four separate bids.”
This new hard-line stance follows reports that BSkyB has put in a £1 billion bid for the bulk of rights, which is thought to include separate offers for individual packages and a substantial bid for the entire bundle based on exclusivity.
The EC, which has accused the Premier League of acting anti-competitively, is keen to prevent all the British football rights going to one broadcaster. It has already intervened in the Premier League’s bidding process to force it to increase the number of media rights packages available to bidders.
The league agreed to split the bronze package of 62 Saturday afternoon games in two to attract more competitive bids from terrestrial broadcasters, such as ITV or the BBC. However, it is thought that BSkyB is still intent on securing all the packages exclusively.
Last month the EC approved UEFA’s plans to joint sell the media rights to Champions League games in a move that underlines its aversion to one broadcaster owning all the rights in a single country. Competition commissioner, Mario Monti, has reportedly called on the Premier League to look to these deals as a ‘template’ and has expressed his concern that the current media rights packages remain unacceptable.
