Deal or no deal? RTL awaits clearance to carry Dutch Premiership football

[BGonaSTICK]

With just a week to go before the start of the new Dutch football season, RTL Nederland doesn’t know whether or not it will be carrying the highlights of the Premier League (the Eredivisie) from the start of the season. The reason is that RTL’s proposed takeover of Talpa’s TV channel Tien has still not been given the go-ahead by the Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa). Tien holds the rights to the Eredivisie highlights for the 2007/2008 season. The plan is that, if the takeover is approved, Tien will close down and RTL will take over the rights. But until the NMa announces its decision, nothing can happen.

The NMa has indicated that it will not be rushed into a decision, which suggests that an announcement next week is unlikely. The uncertainty means that both Talpa and RTL have had to announce tentative schedules, and the programme magazines will have to print alternative versions because nobody knows what’s going to happen. It looks as if the season will start on Tien, but will switch to RTL whenever the NMa gives the go-ahead.

Source: Media Network Weblog

[Analoguesat]

The Tien deal got the go ahead today. Tien will make its last transmissions on Friday & be replaced by a new RTL8 Saturday