Charlton Athletic Online

The hot news this afternoon is that BSkyB have lost the right to broadcast all the Premiership matches live when the current contract runs out. This follows lengthy discussions between the Premiership and the European Commission regarding the live game monopoly that Sky currently have.

The proposal that has been accepted is that TV packages will be split into six groups, and no one company may win the bids on all six.

Expected bidders, apart from Sky, include NTL (who are merging with Telewest in the near future), plus terrestrial TV companies BBC, ITV, and Channels Four and Five.

The consequences of this are yet to pan out, but I expect the next TV rights contract to produce lower overall revenues for the Premiership clubs as Sky currently pay a premium for live game exclusivity. This is bad news for the clubs, but could be good news for fans if more live games make it onto terrestrial TV.