Bernie, Kirch and ACEA to agree 100-year deal.

It appears that the long-running saga over the commercial and broadcasting rights to Formula One may finally be reaching an end, after the foundations of an agreement between the competing parties were laid yesterday.

Following the decline of German television merchandising operation EM.TV as a partner in Bernie Ecclestone's SLEC holding company, the arrival of media rival Kirch and the attentions of a consortium made up of the major motor manufacturers competing in F1 has caused concern over the future direction of the sport.

Now, however, Britain's Financial Times newspaper reports that a four-way agreement, involving Ecclestone, Kirch, EM.TV and the ACEA consortium, looks set to calm the waters.

According to the title, the FIA yesterday granted its approval to a conditional agreement which will see Ecclestone and SLEC extend its control of F1's broadcasting and commercial rights for the next 100 years. Ecclestone has 30 days to accept the deal, in which he is understood to be paying an initial $309m for the rights, with a balance of $51m to follow at a later date.

The four-way agreement is thought to allow ACEA access to 35 per cent of SLEC, with 25 per cent retained by Ecclestone and the balance by the two German media groups. The deal has been achieved by assurances given by Kirch that the sport would not be turned over to pay-per-view television - something that has brought the motor manufacturers back to the negotiating table, and away from plans to set up a rival series to F1.

Ecclestone will remain in sole charge of F1's day-to-day operation, as he has for many years, but has had to agree to SLEC relinquishing its grip on other series outside of the category. As part of an agreement reached with the European Commission [EU] following a long-running anti-competition investigation, the FIA will revert to being a purely regulatory authority, with no commercial involvement in F1 as well as SLEC disposing of all its non-F1 motor sports rights. The Commission also ruled that Kirch would be unable to end free-to-air coverage of the sport, as this would also breach EU competition rules.