England matches may not be live on terrestrial TV

The Football Association has dropped its commitment to ensuring that home England games and FA Cup ties are shown on terrestrial television in their next TV rights deal.

Under the current £405m three-year package, England games are shown live on BBC and Sky at the same time, which meant, for example, that more than 11 million viewers watched the recent Euro 2004 qualifier against Turkey. The FA will consider a similar arrangement involving a terrestrial channel, such as BBC or ITV, working in conjunction with a satellite or cable partner, such as BSkyB, in the new deal, which comes into force in 2004.

The current deal was agreed when the FA was in pole position in the negotiations. However, since then TV rights have potentially fallen in value and the governing body, no longer as well of as it was, has embarked on a round of redundancies to help cut costs by 20 per cent.

Under such pressures, the FA has dropped its commitment to terrestrial television involvement, meaning Sky could win exclusive rights to home England matches and FA Cup ties, apart from the final, which is protected by law as one of the protected sports events that must be available on terrestrial TV.

The shift in attitude has been revealed in the FA's tender documents for the 2004-2007 rights, which have been sent out to all prospective broadcast partners.

"We have commenced the tender process after several months of discussions with all of our main broadcast partners," the FA spokesman, Adrian Bevington, said. "It is entirely correct to point out that the successful bid could come from one of those broadcast partners or a partnership between them could prove successful. However, at this stage, we are still at the opening phase of the whole process."

The FA remain confident that their next TV rights package will be worth about as much as the current deal, but stress they have a commitment to the game to maximise their revenues even if they do not necessarily have to accept the highest bid.

Sky paid the major part – about £270m – of the current deal, but had second choice of FA Cup ties and risked losing viewers for any England games that were also shown live on BBC. The satellite channel may therefore consider an exclusive deal to be more valuable to them than a similar share with the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or Channel 5, which could mean the FA realises more for the rights.

The tender document also reportedly contains other controversial suggestions, including live FA Cup games before 5pm on a Saturday and the first chance to screen some ties on a pay-per-view basis. The FA are offering kick-off times as early as 4.45pm to broadcasters for live FA Cup ties, which could mean fans being put off attending other matches.

An intention to bid must be submitted by Monday along with a £50,000 deposit, while a decision is hoped for by September.