The move ends UEFA's long-running relationship with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and will change the way TV viewers across Europe watch matches at the finals co-hosted in Switzerland and Austria in three years' time.
The major shift in policy will see SportFive approach each TV market individually and open up a competition for the rights.
Said UEFA chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson. "Now we will adopt a market-by-market approach. Together with SportFive we will approach the markets individually in Europe and open a competition on the rights to each of the broadcasters in each territory.
"However, one of the conditions is that the main part of the transmissions should be free-to-air TV," Olsson added, "because the executive committee feels it is important that this pinnacle competition is available for everybody in Europe.
"There are no financial guarantees," the UEFA CEO added. "We have made an evaluation of each of the markets that we are trying to reach, and we think it would make sense, since there was a 20 per cent increase in viewership in 2004, compared to 2000, that this should be reflected for 2008, and that the value should move in similar figures.
“So we think there is room for additional income on the European TV market. The market value should be above B600million on the European market."
