UEFA has given broadcasters and marketing agencies a month to stake an interest before bidding for multimedia rights to show the next tournament.

 

UEFA spokesman Rob Faulkner said: "We are quite confident that, after a successful Euro 2008, that Euro 2012 will continue to deliver good incomes."

 

Football's European governing body made a €250 million (£232 million) profit staging Euro 2008 over three weeks in Austria and Switzerland in June.

 

Tournament turnover was €1.3 billion (£1.2 billion) with around €750 million (£698 million) believed to have been earned from selling the rights to show matches on television and through the internet and mobile phones.

 

UEFA estimates that at least 155 million people watched each of the 31 matches live on television, with more than 200 broadcasters covering 231 countries.

 

Faulkner said the European Championship ranked in the top three audiences for global sporting events, behind football's World Cup and the Summer Olympics.

 

Potential bidders must register with UEFA by a January 20 deadline to get more information about the process.

 

Faulkner said: "We are in a business where you can't wait to see what happens in the market.

 

"We have moved on to Euro 2012 and we need to have contracts in place."

 

UEFA plans to separate deals for some of its major markets - such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain - to maximise revenue.

 

For Euro 2004, the Swiss-based UEFA sold collective rights to the European Broadcasting Union, an umbrella organization of 75 public networks in 56 countries.

 

UEFA changed strategy for Euro 2008, selling European rights to Sportfive, a French-owned marketing agency based in Hamburg, Germany, which then made deals with broadcasters country-by-country, a deal that the International Olympic Committee plans to follow when it sells the rights for the 2014 Winter and 2016 Summer Games.