Aviva Premiership Rugby Rights

BT to be sole broadcaster in multi year deal ...

BT AND PREMIERSHIP RUGBY IN EXCLUSIVE LIVE BROADCAST DEAL



BT and Premiership Rugby today announced one of the biggest broadcast deals in the history of club rugby, signing a contract worth up to £152 million for a range of exclusive live rights over a four year period.

In a ground-breaking move for the club game in England, BT will have the exclusive live broadcast rights for four years to show Aviva Premiership Rugby and the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Sevens from the 2013-14 season. BT will also have exclusive live broadcast rights to matches played by Aviva Premiership Rugby clubs in any future European competitions from 2014-15 for three years.

Live Aviva Premiership matches are currently split between BSkyB and ESPN so the new deal means that from next season, rugby fans will be able to catch all of the excitement of the Aviva Premiership in one place with the bonus of additional live coverage from future European competitions from 2014.

"This is a game-changing agreement and will deliver a service that I know our club supporters will enjoy," said Mark McCafferty, Chief Executive of Premiership Rugby, the umbrella organisation of the Aviva Premiership Rugby clubs.

"We are delighted to have concluded our discussions with such an ambitious partner that will help bring Premiership Rugby to new audiences.

"BT is a company at the cutting edge of technology and that is one of the reasons it makes them such an exciting broadcast partner for Premiership Rugby.

"We will develop a broad partnership. As well as showing the live games, BT will assist us in further upgrading the technical infrastructure of our clubs' stadia and by building Community programmes with us."

Marc Watson, BT Vision CEO added: "BT is delighted to have secured this deal. Rugby Union is entering a thrilling phase with the World Cup being staged here in 2015 and rugby returning to the Olympics in 2016. We plan to bring the excitement of the very best matches to as wide an audience as possible. We will also be bringing all of the action together in one place and will look to distribute it on a variety of platforms."

"BT is serious about sport and this deal means we will be offering the very best rugby action alongside some of the most thrilling football matches from the Premier League. That is a winning combination and one that will appeal to fans of both sports."

The agreement, which is worth up to £152m, covers:
·Exclusive live broadcast rights to up to 69 matches per season from Aviva Premiership Rugby for four years starting from the 2013-14 season.

·Exclusive live broadcast rights to matches from the entire J.P. Morgan Asset Management Sevens Series for four years starting from the 2013-14 season.

·Exclusive live broadcast rights to matches of Aviva Premiership teams in any future European competitions for three years starting from the 2014-15 season.


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EXCHANGE on LONDONSTOCKEXCHANGE.COM
12-Sep-2012 @ 11:21

Well that helps BT fill up its new sports channel. I wonder if bt has anything up its sleeves? Who did hold the rights before.

Could be curtains for ESPN this deal.

Sky and ESPN.

Reluctantly I now tend to agree. Certainly confirms BT's intentions in Sport. makes BSB look less strong too.

Either way It brings in competition towards sky, which can only be good?

I think it confirms anything that is a target for ESPN is a target for BT, and in terms of the UK at least, BT have bigger pockets.

As with the Premier League deal, BT are going to have to work very hard indeed to make a return on the huge amount they have paid for two contracts.

It's a shame there isn't any Football League or Champions League rights up for grabs at the moment. As that would have an interesting outcome. I do wonder whether football league would dare leave Sky again to chase big money?

I wonder who BT will get in as main rugby presenter? I wouldn't bet against it being Steve Rider. Although they might want go down the ex-player route.

As for the football, lots of speculation about Lineker but can't see him leaving the Beeb. I can't see them taking Ray Stubbs from ESPN either as they won't want people thinking they're just the new ESPN. I'd make an outside bet from another member of the ESPN team, Rebecca Lowe who's very competent from the little I've seen, it'll also help to give a fresh image.

I can also foresee Jonathan Pearce leaving the Beeb, to take a place on the BT commentary team. Not everyones favourite commentator, but to me the stand out commentary voice of our time and much underused.

Sounds like a row could be brewing.

The ERC have just announced a new and exclusive 4 year deal with Sky and claim that the European aspect of Premiership Rugby's deal with BT breaches ERC and, more importantly, IRB regulations.

Here's the Sky press release, which makes no mention of the BT deal.

http://corporate.sky.com/investors/press_releases/2012/four_more_years_of_european_rugby_live_on_sky_sports

ERC statement questioning the BT deal,

http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/news/18589.php

I'd agree that there could be a row brewing. Back in 1997, the RFU done its own TV deal for England's autumn internationals, but also, to the anger of the other nations, England's home games and games in France in the 5 nations (later 6 nations). This deal, which lasted until 2001, saw Sky take live games, ITV highlights. The SRU said the 5 nations was not Englands event to sell, and this then led to the organising committee of the 5 nations, the home unions tour committee, ejecting England from the tournament. As a response, the RFU issued a compromise, which was accepted, in that a percentage of the tv money was given to the 4 home unions tour committee. So England were reinstated, and indeed since then the RFU have only negotiated separate rights for the autumn internationals, not the 6 nations.

This is therefore the same situation. The RFU have done a deal with a broadcaster, to give them exclusive rights to english teams taking part in a non RFU competition, the rights issuer being another body, namely ERC. Said existing UK rights holder, Sky sports, will have cause for concern on this, but not only that, what must the other nations think, especially France, who have previously been shoulder to shoulder with English clubs in the past? I would think other nations must be asking why the RFU seems to think it can negotiate its own TV deals for non RFU competitions, yet the other nations can't.

Such a thing can, and may put the whole tournament in jeopardy. Would ERC seek to remove English clubs from its competitions? How would other nations, especially France, feel at that? And this could also place the IRB in a very awkward position, if the ERC makes a protest to them; England host the 2015 world cup. Interesting and controversial times ahead.

The Eurpoean thing is interesting and rather confusing. It's no secret the English and French clubs are threatening to break away from the Heineken Cup, so whether BT's rights to any "future European competitions" means in the event of a non ERC event being created BT have the rights, or a presumption that Premiership Rugby have the right to sell the rights to games featuring their teams (which would be somewhat unprecedented) remains to be seen.

It's another hugely inflated deal too - £38m a year compared to £18m a year currently from Sky/ESPN. A good weekend schedule filler though for BT and they haven't got to schedule it around football considering the 12.45pm kick-off is their major commitment. I agree though possibly a deal breaker for ESPN - it was the main thing they had once you stripped away the Premier League football.