- 6 October 2001
- Liverpool
The Premier League have settled their dispute with the European Commission over television rights.
The EC say the deal over rights for the 2007/08 season will give fans "greater choice and better value".
The League have given a commitment that at least two broadcasters will share the rights in the future and no bidder will be allowed to buy more than five of the six packages of live games.
A statement from the League revealed shareholders had approved the deal which was agreed with EC competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, who will now forward them for formal approval.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: "This has been a long and often complicated negotiation.
"We are grateful to the commissioner and her officials for the efforts they made to reach a workable compromise.
"We are pleased that this agreement addresses the commission's competition concerns, and paves the way for certainty surrounding how we sell our rights next time around."
A statement from the EC revealed: "Live TV rights will be sold in six balanced packages with no one bidder being allowed to buy all six packages.
"Packages will be sold to the highest stand-alone bidder for each package, and bids other than simple stand-alone bids will be disregarded."
The auction will be monitored by a trustee, selected by the commission, who will report back to the EC.
Kroes said: "I am pleased to bring this long-running case closer to a satisfactory outcome.
"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."
After months of wrangling over BSkyB's current monopoly over the rights, a spokesman for the commission confirmed the threat of legal action against the League had been lifted.
The spokesman said: "We are no longer threatening legal action."
A range of broadcasters now stand a chance of getting a share of the live match rights.
The Commission said until today's deal, they 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".
The statement added: "The League's revised commitments address the points raised, including specifying the precise terms of the no-single-buyer rule and the conduct of the auction process, creating evenly-balanced packages of rights, and increasing the availability of rights to broadcast via mobile phones."
Interesting...