Commission move may open Premiership to TV3 and RTE

The prospect of TV3 and RTÉ getting access to lucrative Premiership football rights has increased with the EU Commission likely to force the English Premier League to sell the Irish rights separately.

Currently, Sky has exclusive ownership of Premier League rights for Britain and Ireland, but EU Commission sources told The Irish Times this arrangement was unlikely to remain in place in future.

RTÉ and TV3 sources said it was becoming increasingly likely that the Irish rights would be "unbundled" from the British rights and broadcasters would be able to bid for them.

The Commission has sent a "statement of objections" to the English Premier League accusing the organisation - which consists of 20 clubs - of price fixing. It is understood part of this statement refers to the sale of rights in the Republic.

While Sky would still be able to bid for the Irish rights, it is unlikely it would get access to all matches.

According to EU Commission documentation, no single broadcaster is capable of broadcasting all matches, so it would be unfair to prevent other broadcasters bidding for the matches which are not shown live.

TV3 has recently made a submission to the Commission on the matter, arguing that Sky only broadcasts 25 per cent of matches live and the others should be available - at least in part - to other broadcasters.

It also argues that the English ban on broadcasting Saturday matches live has little or no relevance to the Republic. This ban is in place because the football authorities have traditionally worried that broadcasting Saturday matches could damage attendances at games.

RTÉ and TV3 are increasingly confident that at least some Premiership matches will become available to them, although Sky may retain rights to the majority of matches The Premiership rights are among the most lucrative in the world, with BSkyB paying £1.2 billion (€1.8 billion) last time they were offered.

The European Commission has asked the Premier League and other interested parties to make submissions on the issue of the exclusive Sky deal. TV3 and NTL are understood to have made submissions, but so far RTÉ has not.

The Premier League recently asked for more time to make its submission, but it is likely it will reject the claims made by the Commission. However unless the league's submission includes new evidence previously unseen by the Commission, future deals are not likely to take place on an exclusive basis.

The exact structure of the future deals is uncertain, however. According to sources future packages could be sold across a range of options: pay-per view, subscription, deferred highlights. The broadcasting of the matches could also take place in the morning, evening, weekends or weekdays. "It is too early to say how the whole thing might be structured, but one single exclusive deal is now highly unlikely", said one source.