[stej86]

BT: Premiership Rugby says BT has exclusive rights to broadcast Premiership matches from next season, and European games involving Premiership sides in the UK from the 2014-15 season

Sky: ERC says Sky has exclusive rights to broadcast European games in the UK from the 2014-15 season

Britain's BT Group and BSkyB were fighting over the rights to broadcast top European club rugby matches on Wednesday, with both claiming to have signed exclusive deals to show some of the same live games.

BSkyB said it had agreed a new four-year deal with the ERC to show European club competitions from 2014, bringing it into dispute with BT which claimed its agreement also included European games involving top English clubs.

The body that organises the Heineken Cup has questioned the validity of BT Vision's new television rights deal with England's top clubs.

On Wednesday Premier Rugby unveiled its new agreement with BT, which is worth up to £152m and divided into a deal to show Premiership rugby from next season, and European club rugby from the start of the 2014-15 campaign.

However, ERC then announced it had also agreed a deal with BSkyB, for exclusive coverage of European club rugby, from the start of the 2014-15 season.

And ERC insisted that Premier Rugby's European deal with BT is "in breach both of International Rugby Board regulations and of a mandate from the ERC Board itself".

The statement said it was "unanimously agreed" at an ERC board meeting on June 6 that ERC would conclude a new four-year agreement with satellite broadcaster Sky Sports for the UK and Ireland exclusive live broadcast rights to the European Cup and the European Challenge Cup until 2018. It added: "Premiership Rugby was party to that decision and we will take legal action if necessary."

Here is the Sky Sports statement declaring they have won the european rights

http://www1.skysports.com/rugby-unio...y-deal-for-Sky

Here is the BT statement declaring they have won the european rights

http://www.btlife.bt.com/entertainme...roadcast-deal/

Some one has been done over here. Question is, is it BT or Sky?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/19580339

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/1-b...142416847.html

[scotty2808]

Interesting times ahead.

Could come down to court rulings... seems to be quite black and white - Would expect it wouldn't be too difficult - they either "do" or "do not" have a signed agreement giving them a mandate to handle TV rights for all European clubs.

[Hup_73]

Apparently the clubs gave official notice to the ERC back in June, so in their eyes the agreement ends in 2014. The English and French clubs are unhappy with the way the ERC run the Heineken Cup, and the English clubs are pushing for a new tournament but they need the money (which they now have from BT) and the French clubs agreement (which they don't have) to be able to do this.

There is a good chance that the ERC will tweak the tournament rules to keep the French clubs happy, so they'll then sign up - this will leave the English clubs out in the cold, which will ultimately mean they'll have to go tail between their legs back to the ERC and Heineken Cup. Which would leave BT with no rugby tv rights!

Essentially imo who gets the rights will come down less to the courts and more to do with whether the breakaway actually happens and a new tournament is created. If it happens, BT will get the rights - if they bottle it and stick with the status quo then Sky will have the rights