EU may limit Murdoch's TV soccer rights
By Lisbeth Kirk
Dominant TV satellite group BskyB, owned by Rupert Murdoch, may see an end to a 13-year effective monopoly on televising live Premiership soccer games.
According to the UK daily, the Guardian, the European Commission is preparing legal action against the Premier League after 18-month talks over the sale of TV rights for top football games in the UK appear not to have produced any solution.
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Brussels would like to limit Sky's ownership to 50% of all live games, says the newspaper.
This should happen by the time the next three-year contract starts in 2007 and would free access for other broadcasters such as ITV, NTL, Telewest and Setanta to get into the business.
A spokesman for the Premier League denied that talks had broken down with the commission, while Sky said: "We believe we will be in a strong position to bid competitively for whatever rights are available to us."
Exclusivity on television rights for top sport events has been granted in other European states, such as France, where broadcaster Canal+ recently won the rights to broadcast all live football games.