German Football Goes Mobile

The EC sees its agreement with the football league as a breakthrough in its attempts to open up sports rights by stopping so-called joint selling of media rights. Under that process it was mostly the large, rich media groups that had the financial resources to bid for rights while small online services, mobile phone services and even small broadcasters were kept out of the running.

Broadcast rights for internet and mobile phones concerns the EC which launched an investigation in January. Exclusive purchase of new media rights and bundling TV and new media rights raised questions of anti-competitive practice. Rights sales for English and German Premier Leagues and the Champions League raised the ECs concern.

"In the interest of entrepreneurship, consumer choice and innovation, the Commission wants to make sure that access to this key premium content is not unduly restricted," said the EC statement as the investigation started.

In July the Commission broadened the probe to all content rights.

The Commissions decision Friday (September 17) to allow the German football to modify its rules allowing separate rights for internet and mobile phone distributors is a signal that the investigation may be coming to a close.

Private commercial broadcasters say they are shut out from rights to top sport events because the pubic broadcasters can bid up the fees, an assertion denied by the European Broadcasting Union.

Right fees for the 2004 Athens Olympics were sold to European public broadcasters, negotiated by the EBU, for €394m. For the first time, Olympic Games broadcast rights for 2010 and 2012 come with new media rights.

UK radio station TalkSport reportedly took its complaint about the BBCs 3 year rights deal with the Premier League to the EC. In a battle of press statements last week (September 13), TalkSport managing director Michael Franklin challenged the bidding process as anti-competitive.

According to the TalkSport statement, reported by Media Guardian, the Premier League originally offered four broadcast rights packages to comply with EC decisions only to award the entire package, including internet rights, exclusively to the BBC for £39m.

ftm Follow Up & Comments

Pack Your Suitcases (Full of Money). Bids Start for Olympic Mobile Phone Rights - August 2, 2005

text of EBU press release

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) today announced the official publication and launch of the invitation to tender procedure for the acquisition of European Mobile Media Rights for the XX Olympic Winter Games (Turin 2006) and the XXIX Olympic Games (Beijing 2008).

The invitation to tender provides parties interested in acquiring a licence, the opportunity to bid for the right to deliver moving images of the 2006 and 2008 Olympic Games, via live and on-demand packages, to mobile phone devices. The rights packages are available for a single or group of countries within the territory covered by Eurovision (54 countries in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East)

Interested parties can request the invitation to tender from the EBU via email at tender@eurovision.net

The deadline for the submission of bids is Friday 9 September 2005 at 12:00 CET.

EBU Radio Signs Rights Deal for Basketball Championships – July 20, 2005

text of EBU press release

The European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) Radio News and Sport section has reached an agreement with the FIBA, the international basketball federation, for the radio and Internet rights on a pan-European basis for the following basketball events ; 2005 EuroBasket (Serbia and Montenegro), 2005 Women's EuroBasket (Turkey), 2006 World Championship (Japan), 2006 Women's World Championship (Brazil).

Following the interest shown in these events by 20 EBU Radio Members, and after three months of intense negotiation, the contract was signed on Friday 15 July 2005.

The contract includes special radio technical facilities at venues, as well as cross promotions and a radio host broadcaster agreement.

Basketball is considered one of the key sports in radio sports broadcasting. This agreement complements the existing EBU TV and Radio contracts providing added value for Members.

Let's Go to the Phones! EBU Takes Bids for Olympic Mobile Rights - June 23, 2005

text of EBU press release

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) today announced its intention to launch an Invitation to Tender (ITT) procedure for the acquisition of European mobile media rights for the Winter Olympic Games, Turin 2006, and Summer Olympic Games, Beijing 2008.

The ITT procedure will provide interested parties the opportunity to bid for the rights to deliver moving images of the Olympic Games, via live and on-demand rights packages to mobile telephone devices. The rights packages will be available on a single country or a group of countries basis.

”Athens 2004 highlighted the ever increasing appeal of the Olympic Games. European television audiences reached record levels with viewers watching an average of 14 hours of broadcast coverage over the 17 days of the competition,” said Stefan Kürten, Director Eurovision Operations Department, EBU. “The EBU wishes to further complement comprehensive television coverage with the opportunity for Europeans to be able to watch images of the Olympic Games over mobile telephone devices at a time and place of their choosing. The launch of the tender process reflects the EBU's determination to offer to interested parties the opportunity to bid for these rights in an open, fair and transparent process," he added.

The XX Olympic Winter Games 2006 will be held in Turin, Italy from 10 to 26 February 2006. The XXIX Olympic Summer Games 2008 will be held in Beijing, People's Republic of China, from 8 to 24 August 2008.

The official publication and launch of the invitation to tender will take place shortly. All parties interested in receiving the ITT may inform the EBU via email at: tender@eurovision.net