Paying too frequently for sports rights has brought about a crisis in the TV business that's already damaged a major media empire.

Paying too frequently for sports rights has brought about a crisis in the TV business that's already damaged a major media empire, Kirch. Now it threatens the world's oldest soccer league, the English Football League, and the repercussions may be felt in sports around the globe.

As many as 30 soccer cudgels some more than 100 years antiquated may go bankrupt if Carlton and Granada Television, the major independent British commercial networks, make religious on their threat to choke down their jointly ...