BSKYB TO LOSE STRANGLEHOLD ON PREMIERSHIP FOOTY

British Sky Broadcasting risks losing its stranglehold on live top-flight English football following a decision by the Premier League on Thursday to split its main media rights package.

The football body has changed the shape of its next live UK package, which starts at the beginning of the 2004-05 season, to reflect the concerns of the European Commission. The commission wants to see more matches on television and more competition among broadcasters

The league's decision to break up the broadcasting rights, which are currently held by BSkyB, follows months of talks.

The commission has indicated that it favours the changes made by the league to the structure of the rights package. In offering three live packages, the league has cleared the way for BBC and ITV to win some live rights to Premier League football for the first time since the competition was launched in 1992. It has offered 138 games in the three packages - 32 more than in the current deal.

Richard Scudamore, the league's chief executive, said: "We have now reached a point where we can go and test some of the agreements we have reached with [the commission]."

However, Mario Monti, European competition commissioner, could raise concerns if the new broadcasting rights to live games went to the same broadcaster.

Competition experts said yesterday that if a company - such as BSkyB - were to buy all the packages on offer, Brussels could take action to prevent it from gaining a dominant position.

Analysts expect BSkyB to fight to retain its exclusivity. Clubs are also thought to favour keeping the company as a broadcast partner because BSkyB is expected to offer less than the current £1bn deal if its exclusivity is broken.