Mandelson backs the European Commission in the shake-up of football rights with the introduction of a new rule that would state no one broadcaster can screen 50% of live Premiership matches, thereby ending the Football Association's exclusive deal with Sky Sports.
Brown, however, backs FA boss Peter Scudamore, who says splitting the TV rights would mean less cash from an exclusive deal and could put smaller clubs out of business.
As it stands, Sky pay £341m to the Premier League for all 138 live games, but the European Commission is seeking to end BSkyB's 13-year monopoly on the live rights to Premiership matches and open the negotiations up to other broadcasters.
The commission has told the Premier League that no one broadcaster should be able to broadcast more than half of the matches, allowing cable groups NTL and Telewest and Irish sports broadcaster Setanta to win a slice of the rights.
Sky is threatening to pay considerably less if it loses the right to screen all the live matches because it fears subscriber take-up will dramatically slow if viewers are given the opportunity to watch Premiership matches on rival networks.
Sky has pledged to reach 8m subscribers by the end of 2005 and currently has 7.8m.
If the rights are shared, Sky, which earns huge profits from its £40-a month sports packages, could be in danger of losing a significant proportion of its £1.6bn TV income.
It is not the first time that the Brussels-based commission has tried to end Sky's monopoly. In 2003, it attempted to influence the sale of rights of the current 2003-2006 deal by dividing matches into four packages.
However, Sky outbid other broadcasters for every package.
The European Commission and the Premier League have been in negotiations about the sale of the 2007-2010 match rights for 18 months.
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