Sky goes for broke over live footballl

RUPERT Murdoch's BSkyB is planning a winner-takes-all bid for live Premiership football matches. The move could torpedo efforts by the Premier League to appease competition watchdogs by splitting the games into four packages.

If the bid succeeds it is certain to lead to renewed conflict with the European Commission because Sky would retain sole rights to live Premiership games after its contract expires next year.

The EC said last week that the League was acting at its 'own risk and peril' by selling the rights to a new three-year deal without agreement with Brussels.

It was Sky's exclusive hold on live football that prompted the EC last December to declare that the arrangement was anti-competitive and 'tantamount to price-fixing'.

Sky paid £1.1 billion for the rights to show 66 live games - a price no other broadcaster could match.

The Premier League last week split the third, least attractive rights package of 62 live Saturday games. It claimed the move was for commercial reasons, but close observers believe it did so because the third package had attracted only one bidder - Sky. The Saturday package was valued by City analysts at up to £390 million.

By splitting it in two and reducing the cost, the League had hoped to attract more bidders.

This could allay some of the EC's concerns. But it is understood that Sky will submit a further bid by tomorrow's-deadline for all live matches. Sky refused to comment.

Despite suggestions that the League would be unable to raise as much for the rights to its matches as last time, it is likely that Sky would pay virtually the same as before, though for more live matches.