The ruling, which outlawed the sale of the rights to any satellite channel, has left Kirch with two choices – sign a financially inferior deal with a terrestrial broadcaster or, more significantly, not sign a rights agreement at all. Kirch is under no obligation from FIFA to find a buyer for the rights and, should a terrestrial broadcaster not meet the asking price, then it may transpire that no deal will be struck. This being the case, Kirch will be expecting to more than make up the deficit in an agreement for the rights to the 2006 tournament to be held in Germany which represents the perfect time-zone scheduling for European broadcasters.
The test case, which saw the House of Lords uphold the ITC’s wish to stop London-based TV station TV Danmark feeding coverage of the Danish national soccer team’s away matches back to satellite broadcasters in Denmark, sets a precedent that government-listed sporting events must remain accessible to the public on free-to-air terrestrial broadcasters.
UK broadcasters ITV and BBC have made a joint £50m ($71.2m/B81.3) bid to Kirch for the rights to the 2002 World Cup, which is a listed event, only to be rejected on the grounds that the offer was too small
In the wake of the recent test case ruling involving the Independent Television Commission (ITC), 2002 World Cup TV rights holders the Kirch Gruppe could decide not to part with the rights, meaning UK viewers would be unable to watch the tournament to be held in Japan and South Korea.
