Contracts under which television companies obtain exclusive rights to broadcast sporting events for longer than a year are to come under scrutiny from the European Commission.
The new stance is contained in a set of preliminary guidelines on the application of EU competition law to sport adopted by the commission yesterday. EU Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert said that the Commission considered exclusive contracts of up to a year were within current EU legislation.
He added, however: "If they are more than one year we would have to look into it and there would have to be demonstrably good reasons for a longer contract."
Longer contracts would not automatically be declared illegal, Van Miert said, citing the five-year contract between BSkyB and the English Premiership.
This contract had been acceptable to Brussels because the satellite market was still in an emerging state at the time, he said.
Van Miert said the commission had been obliged to get involved in the organisation of sport because of the growing number of complaints it had received from players who felt their interests were being prejudiced. More than 60 cases are currently being examined.
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