EU set to approve free-to-air Irish sport

THE European Commission is today expected to officially approve the free screening of major Irish sports events on television.

However, the Government may face a legal challenge from Sky Television over its decision to list Ireland’s home and away European Football Championship qualifying games for free-to-air transmission .

The FAI has refused to back away from its 7.5m deal with Sky under which the satellite broadcaster has exclusive rights to live screening of Ireland’s home qualifying games.

Assuming the European Commission today gives the green light to the screening of the designated games, the list will come into law once an order is placed before the Oireachtas.

This is scheduled to be completed before Ireland’s next home European Championship qualifying game against Albania in June.

The designated events also include the World Cup, All-Ireland senior hurling and football finals, the Irish Derby and the Grand National.

Communications Minister Dermot Ahern has said advice from the Attorney General is that the list will withstand any legal action from broadcasters.

The FAI says it will be up to Sky to take legal action. It says the contract is vital as it provides badly needed revenue for the development of soccer throughout the country.

Sky is understood to have sought legal advice on challenging the issue in court but has declined to comment on what, if any, action it plans to take.

Mr Ahern, however, said legislation contains measures to ensure a “fair market value” is secured by sports bodies from free-to-air broadcasters for major events.

He said this provision was included on foot of concerns from sports organisations who feared they would lose out on valuable revenue as a result of the list.

There was controversy when the original list was published last October that it only contained the deferred broadcast of Ireland’s Six Nations rugby games.

The minister said the Irish Rugby Football Union had difficulties with being listed on the live section because of contractual arrangements with the other Six Nations rugby boards.

Some commentators also said the GAA had escaped lightly as only the finals of the All-Ireland Championships are designated.

The list will become law through the Broadcasting (Major Events Television Coverage) Act 1999, which gives power to implement the EU’s Television Without Frontiers directive.

The minister told the Dáil yesterday that a special EC committee will meet today and the list would be officially approved, if there were no objections.

Department sources say they are confident it will be approved and that a draft order officially designating the events will be placed before the Oireachtas soon.