AP Worldstream
10-21-2005
Dateline: BRUSSELS, Belgium
The European Union head office is to assess a proposal Friday by England's Premier League to solve a dispute with EU regulators over access to live television rights for English soccer.
On Tuesday, the league committed to sharing its live TV rights with at least two broadcasters as of 2007, after the EU had warned it would file antitrust charges if the league kept the rights with a monopoly broadcaster.
The EU had called on the league to honor the promise it made in 2003 to get live soccer on more channels.
The EU's executive Commission has far-reaching powers to enforce fair trade practices in the 25-nation EU, and can impose fines of up to 10 percent of a company's annual global turnover.
Pay-TV station British Sky Broadcasting Group _ owned by Australian-born media mogul Rupert Murdoch _ has held the exclusive broadcast rights to live soccer games for 13 years, one of the richest contracts in European sports. The satellite broadcaster dominates Britain's pay-TV market with close to 8 million subscribers.
Last year, the Commission agreed to BSkyB keeping its monopoly until 2007 on the condition that the 2007-2010 contract would offer substantial packages to a second bidder.
In 2003, the Premier League awarded a 1.024-billion pound (euro1.495 billion; US$1.798 billion) exclusive deal to BSkyB from 2004 to 2007. The EU complained there was too little soccer left for free TV.
British newspapers have reported that BSkyB's nearest rival, NTL Inc., plans to offer about 200 million pounds (euro292 million; US$351 million) to screen some matches if BSkyB's monopoly is broken.
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