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Premier League games may be shown live, free

The EU struck a deal Tuesday with the English FA Premier League to settle their antitrust dispute over one of the richest television contracts in European sports, raising hopes Premier League games will be shown live on free-to-air television for the first time.

The deal will force British Sky Broadcasting Group to shed its exclusive rights to live Premier League soccer games as early as next season.

"For the first time in the history of the Premier League free-to-air television will have a realistic opportunity to show live Premier League matches," EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said at a news conference in Strasbourg.

After the 2006-2007 season, the Premier League committed itself not to sell the whole Premier League package to a single broadcaster anymore, the EC said.

The announcement came after the Premier League clubs discussed the Commission's offer for a settlement in London.

Under the settlement, up to eight Premier League games per season will be shown by another broadcaster than BSkyB, Monti said. There are no other specific pay-TV companies centering on sports in Britain at the moment, so the rights probably would be sublicensed to either the BBC or ITV.

Monti said the deal "ensures the interests of both fans and leagues are balanced."

In August, the English Premier League awarded a 1.024-billion pound (US$1.78 billion) exclusive deal to pay-TV channel BSkyB for the 2004-2005, 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons -- a deal Monti called bad news for soccer fans.

Monti insisted the contract exacerbated antitrust worries that the Rupert Murdoch-owned BSkyB grabbed too much of the market, with too little soccer left for free TV.

English clubs feared a renegotiating of the contract would cause big losses and drive some clubs toward bankruptcy.

The Commission however did not relish a protracted fight that might end up in court and therefore sought a settlement.

Under the current deal, 138 matches would be shown live on BSkyB, primarily on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

If the league and BskyB had rejected the offer, the Commission would have gone ahead with its antitrust procedure.

The new three-year deal for BskyB was slightly less than the last one, which was valued at ?1.1 billion (US$1.92 billion). The new agreement was already cut up in four different packages to soothe EU antitrust concerns but BskyB still came out on top in each sector.
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