Premier League 2016-2019 Rights

Interesting thought piece in the FT tomorrow on Sky.

Suggestion is that significant funds could be made available towards their FAPL bids by slashing their exorbitant advertising spend.

Chatter ....

Possibility that the auction process might be put on hold, or is already on hold, due to Ofcom's investigation.

It Would be fantastic to have an FTA game on a Sunday afternoon.

I wonder if the 3pm blackout is still as relevant as it was when it was introduced? There's obviously a significant amount of illegal feeds online if you know where to look. Showing at least one or two would maybe help combat piracy a bit.

Even if all 380 games were shown live chances of a FTA game in pretty much any slot would be slim at best.

I don't see on what grounds OFCOM could force all games to be televised - seems to just be Virgin sticking their nose in to something they can't afford.

Chatter....

Discovery/Eurosport and BeINSport both now back in the running for rights.

Although as I think there was zero chatter about BT last time around there isn't much to be gained from rumours really.

I think Eurosport getting rights even with Discovery's backing would be an outside shock given the business model they operate (basic cable carriage). Of course that would have to change.

Discovery/Eurosport and Bein Sport are back in the race - according to Charlie Sale of the Daily Mail, so it just has to be TRUE
He was convinced Apple tv and BeIn Sport would win most of the packages during the last rights auction, and not once did he write that BT were lining up a raid on the rights.

Discovery/Eurosport though is an interesting one. Yes they have the money, so 'if' they win a package, they may not go further behind the paywall than the sports pack (at least with Sky) they are already. Plus, of course this would only air on British Eurosport 1 - rather than the pan-european version most of the other output airs on.
Going deeper into the paywall (I.e seperate subscription) would be dangerous. Would you pay £3 p/month for 18 odd Premiership games, and when that isn't on - Ski jumping, strongman arm wrestling and hours of televised European countryside scenery with some cyclists thrown in for good measure?

Probably not.

Still think that if BT loose out at the expense of BeInSport - I can see BT selling off the sports operation to BeInSport along with all the existing rights - and customer subscriber list.

I also think Eurosports appeal is that is goes beyond the sports that dominate other channels and the press and their current business model reflects that. Premier League football may get significantly more viewers than Biathlon for example, but the cost per viewer is also going to be far greater too.

Long term though we surely can't continue on a three year cycle - it's not good at all for viewers or the industries to have sports channels failing every 3 years due to the Premier League rights being passed on. It surely also keeps prices up as the start up costs have to be reclaimed very quickly with no security beyond year three.

But that's my point of course - they're not part of a sports package on Sky or any other platform. They are part of the The Variety Bundle (the "big basic" package). The money they'd have to pay to acquire the Premier League rights would surely mean they'd have to move to premium tier status to try to recoup it.

Brekkie - I think the three year rights cycle is stuck in European law. The FAPL has to run it by this way - in the same way, they can't just ask Sky for a cheque and give them all the packages of games.
They have to sell some games to a secondary live rights broadcaster.
What the FAPL can stop is the new rights holder of the smaller package of games changing every three years. Setanta, then ESPN, then BT Sport. You would hope that the prem league will see what a decent job (bar outbreaks of Robbie Savage) of the coverage. Having fans fork out extra subscriptions to watch as much football as they can, isn't good for the game or the armchair supporters. What worries me with this one, is they may go for a third rights holder (like Five Live, Talksport and Absolute do with the radio tights) leading to yet more confusion about how to watch the games. I don't think the UK market can take three premium sports broadcasters. I know it's uncompetive, but they should stick with Sky and BT for another three years.

rdd Maybe the way Discovery could get around this, is by moving Eurosport out of the variety pack and into the sports pack/bundles. Would they get extra money from the sports subscriber pots that way? Of course, they also have Quest on FTA across all platforms. So it's not impossible that they would try and show a couple of games via that, to reel the viewers into watching the rest of the remaining games on British Eurosport that way?

Anyway - at the moment it's all hypothetical..

Actually the FAPL has been released from the covenant that prevented all games from going to a single broadcaster. That only applied to the two auctions when Setanta GB were involved. The FAPL, if they so wished, can sell all the rights to one broadcaster, as Premier Rugby did with BT Sport. The FAPL have decided themselves to award the rights to more than one broadcaster in this round.