TV Rights For Sale

The way that Euro 2008 will be televised will be changed. This time round UEFA will not use the European Broadcasting Union but will use the sports marketing agency - SportFive to negotiate with each country separately.

"UEFA has decided to work together with Sportfive on the rights," said Lars-Christer Olsson, The Chief Executive of UEFA. He continued by saying that he thought "it is a major step for UEFA. We have decided to change policy from the past. Now we will adopt a market-by-market approach. Together with Sportfive we will approach the markets individually in Europe and open a competition on the rights to each of the broadcasters in each territory."

There is a possibility that one nation's home games will be televised by one organisation and the result of the games by another. This won't help the usual co-operation between the BBC and ITV.

Also Sky won't be able to monopolise the broadcasing of the finals as a nation's Euro 2008 games will be made available on free-to-air TV.

Whether Sky will walk away with their tail between thier legs because they can't get England's matches and not apply for the other games is another thing. But I do hope that they can screen some games as their technology does bring an extra dimension to football broadcasting.

Resources: Telegraph / NewsFox / SportFive