Premiership could be investigated over £1bn Sky deal

August 11, 2003

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Premiership could be investigated over £1bn Sky deal

LONDON - BSkyB could have its three-year agreement to show Premier League matches ruled out, with reports of challenges to the £1bn-plus deal from Celtic shareholder Dermot Desmond and a competition investigation by the EU.

The FA Premier League announced on Friday that it had awarded live UK television rights for the next three seasons for Premiership matches to BSkyB, with the BBC winning back the rights to show a highlights package, which will see the much-loved 'Match of the Day' return to TV screens.

However, there are now concerns that the deal could be overturned under British and European competition laws.

According to a report in The Observer, Irish financier and multimillionaire Desmond, who is also a shareholder in Manchester United, is planning to lodge formal complaints with the Office of Fair Trading and the European Commission, while the Independent on Sunday says that European competition commissioner, Mario Monti, is already planning to investigate the auction.

Brussels has already said that the way football television rights are sold is "tantamount to price fixing", and the Premier League responded by breaking up the rights into four packages, which would give other broadcasters the chance to bid against BSkyB. However, it ran the auction without approval from the commission.

Now a spokesman for Monti has said: "Competition has not been introduced because the live rights are still with one broadcaster. We will ask the Premier League to provide information on how the bidding took place and how many bids were received per package."

Potentially, the £1.024bn deal could be declared unlawful, and the Premier League could be forced to hold another auction. It has also been reported that the European Commission is investigating the Premier League's future sale of internet and mobile phone rights -- it has done a deal with Hutchison-owned mobile network 3 to show highlights through its video messaging service.

On Friday, Sky welcomed the decision, which will see it broadcast 138 live games a season, starting from 2005. Tony Ball, chief executive of BSkyB, said: "The new arrangements are good news for Premiership clubs and good news for viewers, who can look forward to many more matches on Sky than ever before."

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