FIFA agrees direct TV rights deals in Europe

FIFA has agreed direct TV rights deals with broadcasters in Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Spain as part of a Europe-wide package for the 2010 World Cup worth around one billion euros ($1.21 billion).

For the rest of Europe, world soccer's governing body said it would work in partnership with the European Broadcasting Union to sell the rights to broadcasters in individual countries.

FIFA said the deal would help ensure that Europe's public would be able to view the vast majority of matches at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa live on public broadcast TV.

"It is one billion euros from the European market in 2010 for an event that is taking place in Africa," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said in announcing the deal on Wednesday.

"This is a major step forward for football. It is of huge significance."

Blatter said the deal was worth roughly twice as much as for the European TV rights for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Although FIFA has agreed a deal with Japanese TV as part of the Asian market, it has yet to conclude deals for North or South America, the rest of Asia and Africa, which will raise more revenue from TV rights for the tournament.

It had been expected that the rights might go to Swiss marketing company Infront Sports & Media AG, who are handling the global broadcasting rights sales for next year's World Cup in Germany.

In Britain, the deal would be with ITV and the BBC; in Germany, with ARD/ZDF and Premiere; in France, with TF1; in Spain with TVE and in Italy with RAI and Sky.

FIFA said the deals would not exclude Pay-TV channels showing some matches as well.

Editorial control

Blatter also said the decision not to work with an agency, such as Infront, would give FIFA more editorial control.

"We want to convey our message, not just show football," Blatter said. "We want an African World Cup in 2010."

The BBC said in a statement it had secured the rights to televise the World Cup finals in both 2010 and 2014.

In tandem with ITV, the BBC said it had agreed a deal with FIFA for all 64 matches in South Africa and the 2014 finals, the venue for which is yet to be confirmed.

The package includes television live match rights and highlights, plus live broadband streaming.