Lowe demands fair play over 3G sports rights

By Aoife White

Date: 02/06/05

Philip Lowe, the director-general of the European Commission's competition department (DG Comp) has warned football clubs and media firms that sports rights must be made available to new generation mobile networks.

An initial DG Comp investigation into the sale of sports rights to 3G operators showed that sports content had a critical role to play in the roll-out of the new technology.

"It would be problematic if the supply of sports-based services on mobile networks was hindered as it would endanger the launch phase currently underway in most EU countries," Lowe told a hearing in Brussels on 27 May.

Football rights are often sold in a package by football associations or individual clubs which gives the purchaser - usually a television channel - the rights to broadcast over different forms of media. This could allow TV operators to determine which, if any, mobile operator should have the new media broadcast rights.

Lowe said such joint selling could prove a problem for competition. "Measures are required to avoid excessive restrictions created by rights aggregation," he said. Lowe said that the clearest type of restriction was not to offer the new media rights for sale at all.

"We will…establish a watchlist in that respect to make sure that the rights offered, and the conditions in which they are offered, allow for a meaningful exploitation of those events over 3G networks," he said.

In January 2005, the German football league, the Ligaverband, made a legally binding commitment to offer broadcast rights for German premier and second division matches to a large number of operators.

Philip Lowe, the Director-General of the European Commission's competition department (DG Comp) warned football clubs and media firms that sports rights had to be made available to new generation mobile networks.