Pubs and clubs are the battleground for potential bidders in the shake-up of TV rights for football's Premiership. They say they need some way of challenging BskyB's hold on the licensed premises market. At the moment, pubs and clubs pay Sky about £200m a year to show the season's Premiership games. One potential bidder explained that they had to put together a proposal that appealed to pubs and clubs. That meant they needed to show a substantial number of games for a bid to make commercial sense. According to The Sunday Telegraph, Sky will be allowed to buy the rights to screen more than 80% of games between 2007 and 2010. That is far more than its rivals wanted or expected. The Mail on Sunday 23/10/05 (Financial Mail) page 2 The Sunday Telegraph 23/10/05 (Business) page 1

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