LONDON: This is a move aimed at preventing monopoly in the British football television market. The European Commission is poised to block the sale of English Premier League live football television rights to Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB television. The deal was struck in August.
Earlier the Premiership used to sell live broadcast rights in one block. This year it had separated the rights into four packages in order to get around the Commission’s criticism that the old arrangements favoured large media buyers. This limits consumer access to top-flight football. However, BSkyB got the four packages for more than ?1billion. It was able to cement its position as the only UK broadcaster to screen live Premiership games for another three years.
A London business newspaper has indicated that the European Union’s executive branch wants the bidding process be re-started in a more competitive fashion. The European Commission will send BSkyB and the Premier League a list of objections to their agreement. The agreement gives the pay TV firm exclusive rights to broadest live Premiership games for three years starting next year. The two companies will then have two months to respond after the list is sent.
The Premiership also runs the risk of being fined for not furnishing the European Commission with information about the deal in advance. EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti has expressed concern that BSky B grabbed too much of the market. He noted that this was bad for consumers as competition was less.
Tag: Mario Monti
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EPL, BskyB deal runs into hot water with EU
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Murdoch receives EU nod for Telepiu buy
BRUSSELS: The European Union has given Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp the go ahead for buying Italian pay-TV firm Telepiu from Vivendi Universal. A new entity Sky Italia will be created by the merger. However, strict riders have been attached.
A Reuters report indicates that under the terms of the 900 million euro ($970 million) deal, Italian telecoms operator Telecom Italia will hold a minority stake of up to 19.9 per cent. Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said, “I am satisfied that the Commission, after an in-depth investigation and intensive negotiations with the parites, has established the right conditions for the pay-TV market in Italy to remain open and to evolve in a competitive way on a lasting basis to the advantage of the consumers”.
While Sky Italia is expected to do better than previous offerings, the challenge before Murdoch will include Italy’s rampant pay television piracy. In addition, to match the pay-TV success he has managed in Britain with BSkyB, he will have to install the technology.
It is worth noting that neither Stream nor Telepiu have made a profit since their launch in 1996 and 1991 respectively. Given this track record it could take many years before Sky Italia makes inroads into the Italian market. A critical mass of around 25 per cent penetration is not expected till 2012, according to UBS Warburg, the report says.
Though the country watches nearly five hours of television a day, Sky Italia will face stiff comeptition from 14 free-to-air national channels and 700 local ones — a choice that has helped glue Italians to their screens but may have left them satiated.