BSkyB will no longer enjoy a monopoly over English Premier League soccer rights after its current deal expires, but the satellite pay-TV operator could still retain around 80 percent of the rights under the new auction system.

BSkyB won the latest rights to the Premier League in August 2003, paying a little more than GBP1 billion ($1.7 billion) for a three-year exclusive deal that runs through the 2006-2007 season.

Under an agreement between the European Commission (EC) and English Football Association Premier League (FAPL), the next auction will consist of six packages of games with no single bidder being able to capture all the broadcast rights.

This new arrangement is the best-case scenario for BSkyB, which has nearly 8 million subscribers in the United Kingdom, Mike Hilton, a media equity analyst at UBS Warburg said. “It allows [BSkyB] to keep 80 percent of matches, which we thought was the maximum it would have,” Hilton said in a research note. “The lack of exclusivity premium could help profitability, but this depends on the level of competition for the packages. We think other potential bidders may now reconsider their plans.”