The Danish competition of authority has ruled an agreement for live rights to the Danish premier league between Modern Times Group (MTG) and the association of professional football employers to be illegal.
The authority is yet to set out how it came to the decision, but it means that the bidding process for the 2009-2013 football seasons will be restarted.
MTG has held the rights since 1998, but an unnamed company has now emerged as a potential rival bidder, in addition to interest from Telenor Broadcast’s Canal Digital.
The agreement was worth DKK 200 million (€26.8m) to the clubs with the prospect of an additional DKK if the deal was extended for a further two years. There is also the prospect of the rights being sold on an individual basis, rather than collectively as is presently the case.
In a related development, MTG has launched its own complaint against commercial channel TV2’s acquisition of rights to games played by the Danish national team.
