Ford Super Sunday Posted 13 June 2012 Posted 13 June 2012 Press conference called by PL at 5pm to announce award for the rights from 2013/14-2015/16 Al-Jazeera have been reported to have bid, and bidding was taken to a second round. No-one sure why but could be from low bids or Al-Jazeera's entry into the bidding upsetting the applecart. A lot of people are expecting a 116/38 split between Sky and ESPN with the number of live games increased to 154. an ITK person on the forum DigitalSpy has posted that these are the following seven packages they've been bidding on in the last few weeks. Package A: 26 at Sat 12.45pm- 13 1st picks - 13 4th picks Package B: 16-18 at Sat 5.30pm; 6-7 at Sun 12pm or 1.30pm/2.05pm; 2-3 Bank hols - 22 3rd picks - 4 5th picks Package C: 26 at Sun 1.30pm/2.05pm - 13 2nd picks - 13 3rd picks Package D: 26 at Sun 4pm/4.10pm - 20 1st picks - 6 4th picks Package E: 18-22 at Mon 8pm; 4-8 at Sun 4pm/4.10pm or Sat 12.45pm - 12 2nd picks - 10 4th picks - 4 5th picks Package F: 12 at Sat 5.30pm - 8 2nd picks - 4 4th picks Package G: 10 Midweek and Bank hols; 2 at Sat 12.45pm - 5 1st picks - 5 2nd picks - 2 5th picks Club Quotas (in alphabetical package order): Maximum: 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 2, 2 (Total = 28) Minimum: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0 (Total = 5) Pick totals: - 38 1st picks - 38 2nd picks - 35 3rd picks - 33 4th picks - 10 5th picks
Ford Super Sunday Posted 13 June 2012 Author Posted 13 June 2012 Sky win 116 Matches BT win 38 games Value of rights just over £3bn Previous deal was worth £1.7bn, so A) Sky subscriptions should go through the roof and B) we need to be getting promotion sooner rather than later if we want in on that money-fest.
Floating Fox Posted 13 June 2012 Posted 13 June 2012 BT? So what channel is that gonna be on? Or just online? Seems a strange decision by them! An ESPN lose out completly?
accessory Posted 15 June 2012 Posted 15 June 2012 Probably a new channel. ESPN still have the FA Cup though. That deal won't pay itself. Expect viewers to be asked to fork out even higher subscription fees, which often already run at over £700/year.
Mack Posted 15 June 2012 Posted 15 June 2012 The BT venture will be a folly like so many that have gone before. They have paid a huge amount of money for a small package of relatively low key games. Will people pay extra to subscribe to a BT channel that will only carry 35 odd games when SKY have 150 odd? In addition the ESPN venture was in bed with SKY, whereas this will be more hostile, so I'm pretty sure the SKY Sports channels you can currently get on the BT platform will be withdrawn, leaving them with 35 odd games to base their subscription upon. Whoever dreamed up this idea obviously hasn't paid attention to the Setanta debacle. I will be watching BT closely as a phone customer of theirs, as the only value in future offers will be if you take their telly and 35 game Premier League package, which I dont want just to get a decent rate on my phone. SKY have far too much power within this market, and whilst I think this is not good for competition, it pumps billions into the Premier League and is pretty much bulletproof from any competition. RIP BT TV within 18 months of this deal commencing.
Ford Super Sunday Posted 15 June 2012 Author Posted 15 June 2012 BT? So what channel is that gonna be on? Or just online? Seems a strange decision by them! An ESPN lose out completly? BT will be launching a football-oriented channel in the near future, in time for their rights deal to kick in. They're going to try and multi-platform the channel to Sky, Virgin, BT Vision, Freeview, as it's in their interests. They will be HD, 3D and they have promised more interactive elements with their broadband etc (Probably be a bit like the Sky Sports Active from 13-14 years ago, which was a fad then.) How much the channel will cost is anyones guess. It'll be at least £10 I'd expect. Industry analysts say they need 2.5m subscribers at £10 a month to break even on the deal, but it's also noted that every customer who signs up to a BT package to get the channel would be worth £25 p/m, so it could be less. ESPN are potentially in a hole, and there is massive speculation about their future now. Whether they feel it'll be worth continuing is their decision to make. One point that has been made is that with only 23 of the lesser games, are the majority of their subscribers there for Premier League football? They could try to go it with the FA Cup, go all out to get exclusive Rugby Premiership rights next year and pick up on any scraps which Sky may let go having to pay the extra costs of the rights they've bought. The BT venture will be a folly like so many that have gone before. They have paid a huge amount of money for a small package of relatively low key games. Will people pay extra to subscribe to a BT channel that will only carry 35 odd games when SKY have 150 odd? In addition the ESPN venture was in bed with SKY, whereas this will be more hostile, so I'm pretty sure the SKY Sports channels you can currently get on the BT platform will be withdrawn, leaving them with 35 odd games to base their subscription upon. Whoever dreamed up this idea obviously hasn't paid attention to the Setanta debacle. I will be watching BT closely as a phone customer of theirs, as the only value in future offers will be if you take their telly and 35 game Premier League package, which I dont want just to get a decent rate on my phone. SKY have far too much power within this market, and whilst I think this is not good for competition, it pumps billions into the Premier League and is pretty much bulletproof from any competition. RIP BT TV within 18 months of this deal commencing. BT have got 38 games, 18 of which will be on a first pick basis. That means on 13 Saturday lunchtimes BT will be able to show the best game of the week. So unlike Setanta and ESPN, BT have a carrot to dangle for the first time. Man City-Man Utd, Liverpool-Man Utd, Man City-Chelsea are games which they'll have access to. The other package they got gave them the right to 12 games on bank holidays and midweeks, 5 of which are on a first pick basis. Again, if there's a big match in midweek then they will have first dibs on it. Many people do feel BT have overpaid. £6.4m per game is their outlay, a heck of a lot for a business without the portfolio of Sky (who are paying £6.5m a game). Whether it works remains to be seen. If, for example, they got the near-live (Football First) rights they could well make a go of it being a Premier League focused channel. If ESPN pack up and run away will they go for the Italian football? Europa League? Even get the FA Cup on the cheap? Whatever the case, BT have a distinct advantage. Of the 38 first picks, they will have 18 of them. People who have Sky can't say that they don't need ESPN (or years ago Setanta) by saying the games they have aren't really exciting. BT have paid massive money but they'll have 18 massive games throughout the season to tempt people, and that could be a winner.
reynard Posted 15 June 2012 Posted 15 June 2012 Personally I think this is a terrible deal for football as a whole. So the premier league get richer and richer largely at the expense of all other clubs. We have a situation where only 4 or 5 clubs have any realistic chance of winning the league which is not healthy for spectators and will only continue to get worse. Meanwhile the fair play rules will hit the championship badly and this deal will make the gap even bigger. The money will just go to inflate players wages. Really with this sort of income clubs should be looking at vastly reducing the cost for the average spectator in fact they could probably aford to almost give away season tickets as in any case spectators attending the game will make up a much lesser % of total income so they become even less important. It is time the Government intervened. With this sort of income they should impose a one off tax on the premier league of say 1 Billion with the money ring fenced into grass root sporting facilities. Of course this will never happen. And before anyone says well this is the market etc etc I know but it doesn't make it right. Sky have far too much influence on sport and politics in this country and recent events demonstrate this quite clearly.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.