It looks like this morning’s meeting between the FA Premier League’s Richard Scudamore and the European Commission’s Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes might result in a compromise deal in regard to the auctioning of rights to televise live Premier League football games for 2007-2010 seasons.

Positive noises are being reported on both sides. The Commission will make a decision by Friday as to whether to accept proposals which would see five packages consisting of 28 games a piece auctioned with no one broadcaster holding more than four packages.

I am sure that both sides are keen to avoid an all out legal fist-fight - not least since the League will want to get on with auctioning the rights. A late auction might see lower prices, with bidders leveraging the pressure the League would be under to get a deal in place for the start of the 2007 season.

Over the summer, the Commission has been threatening to take action saying that the Premier League is in breach of competition law if it does not ensure that live matches are shared fairly between more than one broadcaster.

In building its case against the League the Commission asked Ofcom to undertake research to assess the current level of competition in the market. This research has been cited by the Commission in support of their position that the current auction mechanism for rights is uncompetitive and needs to restructured.

Ofcomwatch has asked for sight of this research (afterall it was paid for by Ofcom - i.e. by the licence fees that part make up the cost of communications services paid for by UK consumers, such as those who pay BSkyB to watch live Premiership football).

The League has suggested that this research is not up to scratch - which is not really a surprising line for them to take given that it undermines the current rights model, which they have seemed so keen to retain.

However, withholding the research also results in a lack of transparency, since citizen-consumers are unable to assess the Commission’s position without understanding the market evidence of which it is based. I certainly suspect more people are interested in this issue than in many of the other aspects of Ofcom’s work!

Ofcom have always said the research would see the light of day if the Commission started legal proceedings by sending a formal “statement of objections” to the League, alleging that the football body had broken competition law. The Commission would use the Ofcom research to support its ’statement’ and in doing so publish it.

Of course, the Commission might still go down this route. However, more likely - judging from the tone of reports - is that a compromise deal is in the offing. It will be interesting to see if Ofcom’s research is finally forthcoming should the Commission make a decision on Friday. We’ll be watching out for it.