Sky get half the football rights

dohboy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4953846.stm

Football rights hat-trick for Sky

The European Commission wants UK viewers to have more choice
BSkyB has won three of six packages giving it the right to broadcast UK Premier League football matches.
The winners of the six different match packages will be able to show games for three years starting in 2007.

BSkyB currently has exclusive rights, but a deal between the Premier League and EU means other broadcasters get access to live Premiership coverage.

The remaining TV rights will now go to a second round of bidding. Setanta, an Irish broadcaster, has said it may bid.

Cable broadcaster NTL, BT Group and ITV have also been named as prospective bidders for the remaining three packages.

A second round of bidding for the final three TV rights packages will take place in due course, the Premier League said, adding that it would not comment any further.

More choice

BSkyB will not be allowed to win all six of the packages after the European Commission decided it had to strong a grip on the TV rights.

The Commission had threatened to take legal action against the Premier League if it failed to give other broadcasters a slice of live TV coverage of matches. Each package is divided into 23 games.

The Commission has insisted that at least two broadcasters must have a "viable and meaningful" share of football TV rights in England to ensure viewers have more choice.

Analysts said that the most likely outcome of the bidding process was that BSkyB would win either four or five packages, with the remainder going to one of its rivals.

The Premier League is expected to earn about £1.1bn from the sale of TV rights, about 10% more than the last time they were on offer.

BSkyB owns the current packages of live matches running until 2007, under a £1.024bn ($1.77bn) deal agreed with the Premier League in 2003.

The satellite broadcaster has held the live rights to Premiership football in England since 1992, a position which has helped it become Britain's leading pay TV service.

Other rights, including mobile rights, television highlights packages, and overseas rights, will be determined separately.

Wonder is it better off they get the lot? it looks like the rest are gonna be split between a number a ppv channels anyway. At least you know what you're getting with Sky.

Guy:Incognito

Yeah, it's better if sky get the lot, that way when you get sky, you get all the football. What happens if a couple of different companies get rights? We end up having to subscribe to 3 different ppv systems and I bet the wont cost only a third of skys overall price for the lot.

Necronomicon

Yeah I'd rather Sky got the lot, instead of having all the games spread over 2 or 3 other ppv channels.

radiospan

Sky News were reporting that they got 5 out of the 6 just now?

kippy

As far as I am aware any one broadcaster can legally take up to a maximum of five of the six.
I would be very surprised if Sky only wanted three.
I think there will only be one sixth of the package for slicing up between the other bidders.
I amnt watching sky news at the moment but I would think that that report is accurate.
I agree whole totally with the comments above regarind splitting them up more-ultimately the consumer would have paid more where there more broadcasters involved unless the Beeb or RTE managed to get them.
Kippy

Chardee MacDennis

NTL will be launching a sports channel next season and are hoping to get 1 or two packages, and setanta are hoping for the same, so could be an interesting one, where will we be watching our football?

hopefully this signals the end of george graham and the other guy on prem plus, they are awful!!

Guy:Incognito

Call_me_al wrote:

hopefully this signals the end of george graham and the other guy on prem plus, they are awful!!

You'd think sky would spend a few quid, especially on the premium channel. They dont even have seats ffs, it look sso awkward and akin to Andy Townsend and Ally McCoist's cringworthy spot they do from pitchside.

dohboy

plazzTT wrote:

Sky News were reporting that they got 5 out of the 6 just now?

Analysts were predicting that would be the outcome.

We're past the point of no return with regards football tv rights. The days big league matches on FTA channels are long gone. IN fairness to Sky, their coverage is comprehensive, if a bit souless for my tastes.

But they do seem to have been creeping in PPV for big matches in the last couple of seasons, which would be a bits of a balls if it continues.

Jonny Arson

There will be a second round of bidding for the toher 3 packages and Sky will get the other 2 they are allowed. Setanta definitely bidding for at least 1 package.

Johnny_the_fox

what was the sense in doing the football rights packages - if sky are going to end up with most of them?

was the aim of this not to allow the 'common' folk get access to live football aswell? :eek:

Royale with Cheese

Johnny_the_fox wrote:

what was the sense in doing the football rights packages - if sky are going to end up with most of them?

was the aim of this not to allow the 'common' folk get access to live football aswell? :eek:

I'm going to guess it was to stop sky from having some sort of monopoly which is probably illegal under EU law.

ro2

Setanta have secured two of the rights packages:

Setanta signs €500m deal for soccer

05/05/2006: Setanta Sports have brokered a deal with the FA Premier League worth over €500 million which will see the Irish-owned broadcaster screen 46 live Premiership games from 2007.

The figure is a considerable increase from the 15 Premiership games broadcast this season.

The station has secured 12 matches - known 'Package C' games - with Monday 8pm or Saturday evening (5.15pm) / Sunday lunch-time (1.30pm) kick-off times.

All remaining 34 games, which fall under the 'Package D' category, hold Saturday evening and Sunday lunch-time starts.

The rights run for three seasons, commencing August 2007 at a cost of stg£392 (€572 m).

The European Commission recently ruled that BSkyB's current exclusivity with Premiership matches was anti-competitive and that at least one of the six match 'packages' must go to another broadcaster.

Setanta said last month it would bid for two packages. The pay-TV company, 40 per cent owned by private equity group Benchmark Capital, said it was interested in bidding at the "lower end of the scale".

BSkyB owns the current packages of live matches running until 2007, under a £1.024bn deal agreed in 2003. The broadcaster has held the live rights to Premiership football in England since 1992.

The Rupert Murdoch controlled company also agreed a new deal today, paying £1.3 billion (€1.9bn) for 92 matches. This represents the remainig five packages.

Setanta Sport's director of sport, Trevor East, said: "We are committed to providing a first-class sports service to our customers and the FAPL is a jewel in any broadcaster's crown. It will ensure that Setanta Sports is a must-have sports channel for all football fans."

The deal represents another coup for the firm set up in 2000 by joint chief executives Michael O'Rourke and Leonard Ryan as they increase there presence in the international broadcasting market.

Setanta already holds rights to leading international sporting properties in different markets including the premier leagues in Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Holland.

They also screen a number of domestic eircom league games as well as the cross-border Setanta Sports Cup, which, of course, they sponsor.

Guy:Incognito

Why were the eu allowed to step in and decide aything?Football isnt a nessecity and is essentially a business. The premier league should be allowed sell what they want, to who they want. Theres no advantage for the customer here. It means people with sky have to seperately subscribe to setanta to see soem of the football they were already paying for before.

Have setanta said whether the games will be shown on th enormal setanta channel or the extra ones they added a while back. They have their ****e if the think im paying extra for setanta sports 1 or 2. I'd assume they'll stick a few on the extra premium channels.

Will RTE and/or setanta still have rights to the saturday game?

Paul Tergat

This is v annoying! Having to pay extra now to watch both sky and setanta games!!!

applehunter

Who get get the big games?

evilhomer

applehunter wrote:

Who get get the big games?

Sky still have the premium Sunday afternoon games. But apparently all of the six packages have a few really good games.

Personally I will not be paying out for two subscriptions(Sky/Setanta) in the 07/08 season.

And do you think that the sky sports subscription will get cheaper now that they didn't have to pay as much money and don't have exclusive coverage?
F*** NO!!!

This is going to cost people money and all the grand intentions of the EU just play into the other large Media corporations hands!

jesus_thats_gre

evilhomer wrote:

And do you think that the sky sports subscription will get cheaper now that they didn't have to pay as much money and don't have exclusive coverage?
F*** NO!!!

Sky are still showing the same number, if not more, of games as this season.

A Dub in Glasgo

I think Sky will be showing 4 games more than what they showed this season as part of the Sky Sports pack. Time for everyone to get off their sanctimonious pedestals now. Will Sky increase their subs? Probably but they have been doing that off their own back for quite a while now. Prem plus will not exist on Sky as Setanta have effectively taken those games. The real bonus will be if Setanta are showing their games as PPV off the Sky platform ie the freeview system. This is where the potential is for them as they are unlikely to persuade most of the big team fans to jump ship or for them to have 2 subs.

I will still keep my Setanta subscription and ditch Sky Sports (but I generally do that anyway, I sometimes get Sky Sports for a month if there are games I want to see)

evilhomer

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Sky are still showing the same number, if not more, of games as this season.

The deal does not start until 07/08 season.

Sky still have all the rights for next season.

jesus_thats_gre

evilhomer wrote:

The deal does not start until 07/08 season.

Sky still have all the rights for next season.

Ok then, they will show more games that season.. My point still stands though..

The Rooster

If its:

Sky 3

Setanta 2

Who got the 6th package?

evilhomer

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Ok then, they will show more games that season.. My point still stands though..

How do you make out that they will show more games?

They have the rights to less games and some of the game times conflict.

Football First will also be out the window (for all games they do not have the rights to)

Prem Plus will be gone or worse still they will move all the high interest games to PPV.

Gegerty

Maybe my info is out of date but they said on Sky Sports before the untied game yesterday that they have 4 out of 6 packages, the other 2 going to Setanta.

I'm not sure what to make of this. Sky will no doubt have the better selection of games but I'm sure each package has big matches. Any competition against Sky is good in the long run but with them broadcasting in HD next season they've no worries about losing customers.