Changes to come for 2006 Premiership rights

The Premier League has agreed to structure its live broadcast rights tendering process for the 2006 season and beyond in such a way as to ensure that at least two broadcasters will screen live Premiership matches. No one broadcaster will be allowed to buy all the live TV rights to the games.

The arrangement is part of a package of compromises between the Premier League, Sky, and the European Commission designed to ensure that in future, free-to-air broadcasters will have a "real opportunity," in the words of the EU's competition commissioner Mario Monti, to air live Premier League matches through the season. Sky paid £1.024bn for all four of the live TV rights packages on offer by the League for the next three seasons; in a deal reached yesterday, up to eight of those matches will be offered to other broadcasters in a sub-licensing deal.

Monti said:

"By creating opportunities for broadcasters other than BSkyB now, and even greater opportunities in the future, the Commission is aiming to increase consumer choice in the UK. For the first time, there is a real opportunity for free to air broadcasters to provide their viewers with top flight Premier League action throughout the season."

In a statement, the Premier League said:

"This agreement meets the Commission’s competition concerns and strikes a balance between the interests of fans and broadcasters while maintaining the value of our rights.

"This announcement leaves in place the new deals already negotiated for the next three years and recognises the changes the FA Premier League have made to their broadcasting arrangements over the course of nine months of negotiations. Crucially this agreement delivers our clubs financial stability and certainty enabling them to plan for the future."