Ruling Upends Soccer Rights

Europe's highest court ruled that the way England's main soccer league distributes TV rights in the European Union violates single-market rules, a decision that could jeopardize the lucrative relationships sports leagues have built with pay-TV broadcasters across the continent.

In its ruling, the European Court of Justice said England's Premier League is free to sell rights to broadcasters on a country-by-country basis in the EU -- but can't prevent a broadcaster in any one EU country from selling the content in another member state. That may pave the way for customers in Britain to buy cheaper feeds of matches from satellite-TV operators in other European countries, rather than buying expensive subscriptions from British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC, the dominant Premier League rights holder in the U.K. The ruling is especiallysignificant for U.K. pubs, which have chafed at paying BSkyB thousands of pounds per year to show matches in their establishments.