Big match in store over televised sport

Date: 29/02/1996

By Fiona McHugh

MEDIA magnate Rupert Murdoch's plans to buy up broadcasting rights for major sports events could be thwarted by the Commission if MEPs get their way.

Murdoch, the News Corporation president whose media power seemed to rise unchecked for so long, has suffered a number of humiliating defeats recently.

BSkyB, his pay-TV channel, lost the broadcasting rights for the winter and summer Olympic Games in January to the European Broadcasting Union, the body that represents the public broadcasters of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

A campaign by the UK House of Lords to keep the 'crown jewels' of the sporting calendar away from subscription television firms means that he may also lose the Derby and FA Cup Final rights, and a Restrictive Practices Court probe into exclusive deals with British soccer's Premier League further jeopardises his position.

But now Murdoch faces an even graver threat - from Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert.

Van Miert sprang to fame in the football world earlier this year when he forced UEFA, the sport's governing body, to scrap its transfer fee system and limits on the number of foreigner players in clubs.

MEPs from the culture committee are now hoping he will deliver another virtuoso performance to break Murdoch's tight hold over the screening of other sports events on television.

In an oral question due to be put to the Commission next month, committee president Luciana Castellina will ask: “What will the Commission do to ensure that EU citizens have universal, free access to the broadcast of major sports events, such as the Olympics? Will it ensure that rising costs for the retransmission of sports events do not distort competition between cash-rich commercial broadcasters and public broadcasters?”

A spokesman for Van Miert said Directorate-General IV (competition) would look into the matter, but refused to speculate on the likely outcome of any investigation.

Commercial television stations have been desperately trying to head off mounting opposition in the Parliament to their forays into televised sports, insisting that increased competition has led to a surge in the number of sports shows and an improvement in broadcast quality.

Soune Wade, of the Association of Commercial Television Stations, refutes charges of unfair trading in a letter sent to all MEPs, insisting: “The lack of competitors in broadcasting has led in the past to the formation of joint-bidding cartels to suppress prices and paying just a fraction of the true market value of the rights.”

But her reasoning is unlikely to cut ice with MEPs, whose move to ensure that sports events can be viewed in all homes comes just two months after Sky television bought the right to screen the upcoming Bruno-Tyson fight for 3.5 million ecu. Subscribers are expected to be charged up to 18 ecu to tune into the fight.