Sport set to play major role in roll-out of new technologies

The 
Commission

is keen to ensure as open access to sports media rights
as possible. Outgoing Competition Commissioner Mario
Monti: "As the launch of 3G networks enters into
full swing and the success of the service weighs heavily
on the operators' ability to deliver attractive
audiovisual content, it is the task of competition
regulators to ensure that access to sports rights remains
open and non-discriminatory."

Dr Richard Haynes, from the 
Stirling Media Research Institute at Stirling
University

, says shorter contracts, more packages and a
distinction between TV, 3G and internet are broad
features of the Commission's approach to the sale of
sports rights. Stephen Morrow, also from Stirling
University, agrees that this is becoming the
established pattern, especially for the 'big
five' [England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain]. He
describes the Commission's approach as
"pragmatic" and says it wants to be seen
as acting in the consumers' interest while taking
into account the nature of the football market. Reacting
to the German Bundesliga deal, Morrow's view is that
"this looks like a pragmatic way forward: some
benefits for consumers certainly in terms of improved
choice via new media, but only within the context of
recognizing that there remain clear economic and sporting
benefits from some collective selling of rights. A
difficult balancing act to continue over the long term I
suspect".

Helen Smith, Co-Managing Director of
Brussels-based 
sports consultancy KEA European Affairs

, is optimistic about the deal "as it confirms that
rights should be parcelled and not sold in one lot. Clubs
can also use the rights themselves as soon as the final
whistle is blown and can sell their home matches to
mobile operators. This helps keep the market open to
competition among broadcasters, mobile and new media
companies although, as we have seen with BSkyB, despite
the Commission’s determination sometimes the
broadcaster still ends up with all the rights, after
tendering". 

She sees it as a win-win situation for big and small
clubs alike but argues that "some analysis of the
impact of the carve-up of broadcast rights for individual
club exploitation at different levels of the game would
be useful". Her view is that "We can see
already a two-speed market where the big get bigger and
small get smaller and it becomes harder and harder for
the smaller clubs to grow and provide effective
competition". 

Dutch MEP Toine Manders

(ALDE), who is a member of the Committee on the Internal
Market and Consumer Protection, was "delighted"
by the Bundesliga deal "as these developments
demonstrate that the internal market rules apply to the
football sector as well as to regular economic
sectors".

Looking to the future, Dr Haynes says "Italy and
Spain have fragmented markets for rights, but the
Commission may well focus on the consolidation of
News Corps interests in Italian pay-TV at some
stage".

The sports media rights market is widely regarded as
being an extremely valuable one subject to a high level
of competition. This is particularly the case in
professional football. Broadcasters are willing to pay
huge sums to secure exclusive rights to major sports
events safe in the knowledge that their audience figures
will subsequently soar. The growing use of new media such
as mobile phones and the internet adds an extra
element to the debate over these rights.

Given the high potential returns, exclusivity has led
broadcasting down the road towards pay-TV as opposed to
free-to-air TV. Public broadcasters cannot afford to pay
huge sums to secure rights so the trend is for
individuals increasingly having to pay extra to watch
their favourite sport.

Football, which is considered to be premium content,
is very much in the limelight after the Commission struck
deals with the German Bundesliga, the  English
Premier League and European football governing body UEFA
on the sale of media rights. One of the features of the
deals is a move towards dividing up TV, 3G and internet
rights. Over time, new media such as 3G mobile technology
and the internet are set to be increasingly used by
EU citizens to watch sports events live or in
the form of highlights.

The Commission said in January that 81% of the EU
population have a mobile phone although there are
currently around 500,000 subscribers of 3G services
in Europe. It added that the service has been introduced
in Sweden, Denmark, the UK, Italy and Austria with 40 new
networks due to be launched in Europe in the next 12
months. The transmission of images and sound from sports
events via mobile handsets is said to be the essential
advantage of 3G networks compared to the previous
generation infrastructure.

• The results of the Commission sector inquiry into
  the sale of sports rights and 3G are due out in early
  2005.
• The Commission sector inquiry into the sale of
  sports rights and the internet will be
  launched at the end of 2004 / early 2005. 

European Union

• Commission:Commission launches sector inquiry
  into the sale of sports rights to Internet
  and 3G mobile operators(30 January 2004) [FR] [FR] [DE]
• DG Competition:Speech by Mario Monti - Access to
  content and the development of competition in
  the New Media market- the Commission’s
  approach(8 July 2004)
• Commission:Commission clears UEFA's new
  policy regarding the sale of the media rights
  to the Champions League(24 July 2003) [FR] [FR] [DE]
• DG Information
  Society:Overcoming Obstacles to 3G
  Deployment

EU Actors positions

• UEFA:TV rights agreement - Commission &
  UEFA