leviramsey Posted March 1, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 1, 2012 ESPN's UK managing director expects a bid from Al Jazeera for the UK rights to the Premier League If Al Jazeera wants to launch a platform in the UK, acquiring PL rights is definitely a way to establish themselves (though the linked article points out that there are substantial differences between the British and French markets that may make a repeat of the Ligue 1 rights sale questionable). I think we'll see the most dramatic shake-up in televised football in 20 years. With the pub ruling, Saturday 3pm PL kickoffs are unsustainable. Sky/ESPN/Al Jazeera's best defense against foreign TV subscriptions is getting as many games broadcast as possible, which means either convincing the FA to end the 3pm blackout (unlikely, barring a large payout to the FA (and likely the other Home Nations FAs as well)) or the PL agreeing not to schedule games in blacked out slots. I also suspect that the only way the PL can get a dramatic increase in the fee is to increase the amount of inventory on offer. With one company holding rights, there aren't enough slots on a weekend to allow every weekend fixture to be shown. With two companies splitting the rights equally, it's only really possible if there's a monday night game every week. But with three companies holding rights, it becomes fairly easy, and allows for a primary broadcaster to secure a "Game Of The Weekend" exclusive slot. I don't see Al Jazeera having the infrastructure in place to become the primary broadcaster. If ESPN doesn't at least maintain the current 1-2 games a week that they have rights to, Disney may as well call it a day and give up on any designs they have on expansion in Europe. Sky basically have to pay whatever price is required for at least parity with any other broadcaster in number of games shown. So with all that in mind, I'd expect something like: * Sky get roughly 40% of the games, probably paying somewhere around 600-700 million pounds per year * Al Jazeera 30% for on the order of 500 million/year * ESPN 30% for c. 400 million/year Add in foreign rights and I think the PL will be taking in close to 2bn a year from TV, which would place the league roughly level with the NFL for a year or two before the NFL's 2014-2021 deals start, which are worth just under $5bn/year. This increase would actually in some sense make the PL more competitive. The overseas TV money is split evenly, and an increase in the number of games shown (I suspect that there would still be occasional games not shown, as cups etc. would likely require at least a few midweek nights to have more than three games) would reduce the variation in payments for games shown on TV: the increase in domestic fees would also, ceteris paribus, reduce the impact of European TV payouts. How many clubs are banking on getting close to a hundred million a year? (judging from the recently released financials, I'd say that Villa are quite probably one of them...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 It's a total false economy for everybody except the players though, isnt it? Mind you, we all figured that out ten years ago and we still lap it up. All this will mean is that £200k a week becomes the new wage for star players, £10m is the new price for a squad player and we are one step closer to losing promotion and relegation as the clubs currently in the Premier League cant afford to be out of it. I fail to see how it makes football any better than it was before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
islingtonclaret Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 All the serious stuff aside for a sec: as long as I never have to endure the ITV coverage on a Saturday night ever again I think I'll be happy. Those saying MOTD is crap must have short memories Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 All the serious stuff aside for a sec: as long as I never have to endure the ITV coverage on a Saturday night ever again I think I'll be happy. Those saying MOTD is crap must have short memories The Andy Townsend tactics truck. That was painful viewing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 I'd expect Sky to get ~60% of the games and have the option to show all the top of the table clashes. The premier league is their bread and butter so they'll buy as much of it as possible regardless of cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted March 2, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 2, 2012 All the serious stuff aside for a sec: as long as I never have to endure the ITV coverage on a Saturday night ever again I think I'll be happy. Those saying MOTD is crap must have short memories So true. 1 hour and 25 minutes of Man Utd and Arsenal's games followed by just the goals from everyone else's games crammed into the last 5 minutes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted March 2, 2012 Moderator Share Posted March 2, 2012 I would laugh my tits off if Sky lost the football to Al Jizzer. And I've no loyalty. I'll go where the footy is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted March 2, 2012 Moderator Share Posted March 2, 2012 And I've no loyalty. I'll go where the footy is.And that doesn't mean I'm about to stop following Villa. Har har Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 I would laugh my tits off if Sky lost the football to Al Jizzer. And I've no loyalty. I'll go where the footy is. I cant see it happening but it would be brilliant. No more hyperbole about rubbish games Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 The biggest threat to Sky is Apple. Rumours were a while back that Apple were planning a massive launch on the rights, willing to pay way more than Sky could offer so that they could use Premier League football to sell Apple TVs and their new Apple... TV's. The actual production of the Apple TV (not Apple TV, an actual TV..) has been held up somewhere along the line so it's gone a bit quiet, but I expect this story to re-surface. Would be a gigantic thing if the only way you could watch Premier League football is to buy an Apple TV and a subscription.. I can see the amount they'd bid to get that to blow anything anyone else could offer out of the water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Ah just had a quick look, and it's not actually a hold up in making Apple TV's, they've just put it on hold whilst all the fileshare site stuff is up in the air. They were planning on having Netflix and various things like that built in, but are waiting to see what internet services make it out alive.. Either way, don't think we've heard the last of that. How many customers would sky lose if they lost Premiership football? I'd guess over half.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Dogg Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Sky will never lose the PL. They'll just have to learn to share. Foreign TV rights are where the future money is in the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted March 3, 2012 Moderator Share Posted March 3, 2012 Surely Google will eventually own everything. In all honesty, this is bad new as far as I'm concerned - I had hoped that the TV deal might be a little smaller this time out as SKY were pretty much only competing with themselves and I think there are signs that for an awful lot of people the game is becoming less important, sadly not and we can look forward to the continuing decline in unpredictability, change, genuine competition and all the other things that once made the game so fascinating. It's more pie for the fat man and each mouthful brings him closer to that coronary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 so these are the overseas rights for 2013/14 onwards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDuck Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 It's more pie for the fat man and each mouthful brings him closer to that coronary. Nicely put 8) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted March 7, 2012 Author VT Supporter Share Posted March 7, 2012 so these are the overseas rights for 2013/14 onwards? No, UK and Ireland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sani Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Thanks to the FA, the people in Sweden can only view one match thats played 15:00 on a saturday fron this week and onwards. Greedy pricks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 saw something similar yesterday and its a Premier League decision not the FA itself. Was probably a Sky decision as well and probably to do with that court case they had with the landlady Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ED Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Thanks to the FA, the people in Sweden can only view one match thats played 15:00 on a saturday fron this week and onwards. Greedy pricks 1 more then we can Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Thanks to the FA, the people in Sweden can only view one match thats played 15:00 on a saturday fron this week and onwards. Greedy pricks 1 more then we can I thought something was up as the pub I usually watch Villa in was only showing the Liverpool game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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