Waiting for the whistle

The European Commission has told the English Premier League that its arrangements to sell broadcast rights collectively prevented individual clubs from selling any rights on their own and are anti-competitive and not in the interests of consumers. Only big media groups can afford to bid for the rights, just 25% of matches are shown live, and none of them is free-to-air. The League must respond by the end of February 2003 with proposal to deal with these objections.