Monday deadline for soccer TV rights deals

The European Commission today gave the Premier League until Monday to ensure at least two broadcasters win the television rights to its soccer games.

At present, British Sky Broadcasting Group owns all the rights to the league’s live games.

The EU is asking the league to honour the promise it made two years ago to get live soccer on more channels as of 2007.

In December 2003, the league told the Commission – which had launched an antitrust investigation into the matter – that it would not sell the broadcasting rights to a single bidder.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes today said she still wanted assurances the auction of the broadcasting rights for the 2007 to 2010 seasons would be carried out in a fair and transparent way and the package would be sold in a way that ensures that “at least two broadcasters each obtain a viable and meaningful share of the live match broadcast rights”.