Champions League on pay TV only?

The Cush

An article in the Sunday Business Post today speculates that the Irish Champions League TV rights from the 2015/16 season onward could end up exclusively on BT Sport or Sky.

The invitation-to-tender for the British rights closed last Friday with BT Sports and Sky Sports expected to be the main bidders and a potential £1 billion bid.

The Irish right haven't been opened for tender yet but UEFA said a British bidder could win the rights exclusively. A precedent has been set with the Scandinavian European Championship and World Cup qualifiers going to the SBS Group.

Setanta, BT Sport and Sky did not comment

Also - ITV's Champions League bid fears as UEFA set precedent in France

BT Sport spends £1bn and now eyes a shot at the Champions League
High stakes game for TV rights will keep UEFA's club giants content

mike65

The travails of RTE and TV3 are such that one wouldn't be surprised assuming there are no genuine "domestic" rights.

mikeym

BT wouldnt be interested in the Irish rights.

Their Europa League games are blocked to Irish viewers.

It would be a joke if Itv lost the rights they only get one match between the two days group matches. Sky have way too many games.

Lucky for us Irish we have Rte and Tv3 (I know Tv3 doesnt show their games in HD). If you dont have sky sports and you live in the Uk you get a bad deal.

icdg

The article in the Business Post is almost entirely speculation. There's an comment by an unnamed UEFA spokesperson that a British broadcaster could buy the Irish rights exclusively but under EU law they couldn't restrict the bidding to Irish broadcasters anyway.

The Irish arrangement for Champions League rights is very funny. Officially, the first pick matches are held by TV3 for Tuesday and RTÉ for Wednesday, with Setanta holding all remaining matches. However whatever deal Sky have with UEFA for the UK rights appears to also provide that they can broadcast these games in Ireland also, even if an Irish broadcaster is also showing the games - Sky is listed as an official broadcaster of the Champions League in Ireland on UEFA's website.

There's also been a bit of comment that the French rights have gone exclusively to a pay-TV broadcaster but as the Charles Sale piece in the Mail imitates that may have been a one-off though we'll have to see.

I don't buy this "BT Sport is not interested in Ireland" line by the way. All of BT's rights apart from the aforementioned UEFA Europa League rights (the deal for which was not done by BT, but inherited from ESPN where the same restriction applies - as indeed it does for ITV) are for both the UK and Ireland. Contrary to popular opinion nobody (as far as we know) stuck a gun to BT's head and told them to buy the Irish rights to the Premier League. That said Setanta would probably prefer if it was retain its own rights to the Champions League than BT take over.

Onthe3rdDay

icdg wrote: »

There's also been a bit of comment that the French rights have gone exclusively to a pay-TV broadcaster but as the Charles Sale piece in the Mail imitates that may have been a one-off though we'll have to see.

It wouldn't surprise me if one of the matches was still shown on one of the Free to Air stations in France once the dust has settled. A taster if you will for the main course on Pay TV.

I would assume that UEFA want some sort of Free to Air coverage in as many territories as possible. The UK being the perfect example. 1 match a week.

However, Football authorities make surprising decisions far more often than we like.

The Cush

icdg wrote: »

However whatever deal Sky have with UEFA for the UK rights appears to also provide that they can broadcast these games in Ireland also, even if an Irish broadcaster is also showing the games - Sky is listed as an official broadcaster of the Champions League in Ireland on UEFA's website.

After I read the article in the paper today I did a bit of research on this.

According to the UEFA website Setanta Sports Hibernia Sarl, Radio Telefis Eireann and TV3 Television Network Limited have the RoI TV rights to the 2012-15 Champions League and Super Cup, no mention of Sky in UEFA press release.

http://www.uefa.org/events/marketing/media-rights-and-services/news/newsid=1791613.html#irish+media+rights
http://www.uefa.org/events/marketing/media-rights-and-services/news/newsid=1623933.html

The UEFA Europa League 2012-15 TV rights went to TV3 Television Network Limited and Setanta Sports

http://www.uefa.org/events/marketing/media-rights-and-services/news/newsid=1800612.html

icdg wrote: »

There's also been a bit of comment that the French rights have gone exclusively to a pay-TV broadcaster but as the Charles Sale piece in the Mail imitates that may have been a one-off though we'll have to see.

The article in the Mail gives the impression the French TV rights have already been awarded for 2015-18, they haven't. The French TV rights they were referring to were for 2012-15 period where the Qatar-owned beIN SPORT channel (Al Jazeera Media Network) will broadcast 133 matches (€61m per season) on pay-tv with Canal+ having just 13 first picks per season (€50m over 3 seasons) on their pay TV channel. The final is broadcast FTA on Canal+ and TF1 (€2.5m per year). It seems that French 2012 right deal has set a precedent that UEFA may follow again this time around, we'll see I guess.

But ITV will hope that live terrestrial coverage is still regarded as crucial by UEFA and that France is a special case because of the Qatari influence. Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund own Paris St-Germain and it is reported political pressure was put on France’s UEFA president Michel Platini to vote for a Qatar World Cup.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2435951/ITV-Champions-League-bid-fears--Charles-Sales-Sports-Agenda.html#ixzz2heIg58ds

The 2015-18 Champions League & Europa League TV rights process has just got underway and only 4 European countries are involved so far Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK.

The Cush

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

It wouldn't surprise me if one of the matches was still shown on one of the Free to Air stations in France once the dust has settled. A taster if you will for the main course on Pay TV.

....

However, Football authorities make surprising decisions far more often than we like.

Under the current contract all Champions League matches in France are on pay TV, only the Final is FTA on Canal+ and TF1

icdg

The Cush wrote: »

According to the UEFA website Setanta Sports Hibernia Sarl, Radio Telefis Eireann and TV3 Television Network Limited have the RoI TV rights to the 2012-15 Champions League and Super Cup, no mention of Sky in UEFA press release.

Nonetheless, if you click on UEFA.com's "Live Streaming" page, you'll notice Sky Sports listed as an official UEFA Broadcast Partner along with TV3, RTÉ, and Setanta:

http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/video/livematchcoverage/index.html

Part of the UEFA Champions League contract is a requirement to provide online streaming - even Setanta does it.

There may be an element here of UEFA "talking up" the rights in order to secure increased bids from existing holders. This is in the context of the UK market where UEFA's requirements make it, while not impossible, very difficult for the BBC to bid. As it happens I'd be surprised if there isn't at least one FTA broadcaster in both the UK and Ireland.

channelsurfer2

all speculation in relation to the irish rights as it could be this time next year again they are even offered. the UK rights much more difficult to tell. I still cant see a scenario where BT will end up with the lions share unless they triple what the existing costs are to ITV and SKY.

allowing sky to co-broadcast the rte and tv3 games suits rte and tv3 as otherwise sky would easily outbid them for the exclusive irish rights. (Ryle nugent said RTE pay around 1million euro a year, which is peanuts)

The Cush

icdg wrote: »

There may be an element here of UEFA "talking up" the rights in order to secure increased bids from existing holders. This is in the context of the UK market where UEFA's requirements make it, while not impossible, very difficult for the BBC to bid. As it happens I'd be surprised if there isn't at least one FTA broadcaster in both the UK and Ireland.

You could be right about UEFA talking up the issue but they are moving towards payTV as we've seen in France and Italy in the 2012-15 CL round and Scandinavia for the European & World Cup qualifiers. It will be interesting to see where the UK and Scandinavian CL TV rights go in the coming months.

icdg

In a slightly odd move perhaps not unrelated to this process, but ultimately for reasons known only to BSkyB, Manchester United v Sociedad will be simulcast on Sky One next Wednesday. First live sport on that channel for many years.

The Cush

The Cush wrote: »

It will be interesting to see where the UK and Scandinavian CL TV rights go in the coming months.

Getting interesting - BT Sport to show Champions League and Europa League football from 2015

BT Sport was last night on the brink of a stunning victory in the battle for Champions League football after blowing BSkyB and ITV out of the water with a near £1 billion bid for the world’s biggest club competition.

The new broadcaster is understood to have begun final negotiations with Uefa for the exclusive UK live rights for both the Champions League and Europa League for three years from 2015, signalling an end to decades of terrestrial coverage of European club football.

Scandinavian CL TV rights (Sweden, Norway and Denmark) went to pay-television broadcaster Modern Times Group.

German and Austrian CL TV rights are next up for auction.

indiewindy

These are very likely to be our last 2 seasons of having fta champions league football in Ireland, Setanta are dead certs to buy the Irish rights now. We will be left with internationals fta:(
BT are agreeing to show 1 game per season fta for each English club and the final.

Badabing

Highly doubtful Setanta could afford to get exclusive Champ League coverage in Ireland, maybe one of the nights plus it all depends on how much RTE values their coverage and if TV3 go big and bid for both nights again with the saving they'll make from no Corrie and Emerdale.

icdg

Badabing wrote: »

Highly doubtful Setanta could afford to get exclusive Champ League coverage in Ireland, maybe one of the nights plus it all depends on how much RTE values their coverage and if TV3 go big and bid for both nights again with the saving they'll make from no Corrie and Emerdale.

No I don't think so, unless they did some sort of joint bid with BT Sport. It's been ages since there's been any change in the Irish rights to the Champions League and if there was any change, I'd be wagering on the possibility of TV3 losing the Tuesday night first pick games if they feel they can't afford them. RTÉ will keep their Wednesday first game unless they are somehow outbid.

I think the big issue here is the loss of Match Choice. Right now Sky are broadcasting up to 8 games in a night during the group stages. We'll lose all of this unless BT Sport offers something similar and its not blocked here. Assuming the existing rights holders retain the Irish rights, it'll be down to the terrestrial first choice and one, perhaps sometimes two, games on Setanta. If you take that there are typically four English teams in the group stages, and sometimes one Scottish, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure that on any given night during the group stages RTÉ/TV3 will show one of the British sides and Setanta one of the others. So attractive games involving continental teams, such as Milan v Juventus this week, won't get any Irish coverage at all.

losthorizon

mikeym wrote: »

BT wouldnt be interested in the Irish rights.

Their Europa League games are blocked to Irish viewers.

It would be a joke if Itv lost the rights they only get one match between the two days group matches. Sky have way too many games.

Lucky for us Irish we have Rte and Tv3 (I know Tv3 doesnt show their games in HD). If you dont have sky sports and you live in the Uk you get a bad deal.

Europa League games never get blocked for me

ziggyman17

I wonder how bt can get the exclusive rights in England, would'nt that be seen as a monopoly, like when sky could not have 100% rights to the premier league, I see bt are trying to get around this by offering a free game here and there and having the final as free to air.. maybe sky for the next bidding rights for the premiership will play the same game as bt, by bidding for all the premier league packages and then sub letting some of the weaker games to ITV or the bbc to try and kill off bt.. either way its the paying public that gets screwed yet again, I cannot see how bt are going to make a profit here they have clearly bid well over for these rights..

Onthe3rdDay

ziggyman17 wrote: »

I wonder how bt can get the exclusive rights in England, would'nt that be seen as a monopoly, like when sky could not have 100% rights to the premier league, I see bt are trying to get around this by offering a free game here and there and having the final as free to air.. maybe sky for the next bidding rights for the premiership will play the same game as bt, by bidding for all the premier league packages and then sub letting some of the weaker games to ITV or the bbc to try and kill off bt.. either way its the paying public that gets screwed yet again, I cannot see how bt are going to make a profit here they have clearly bid well over for these rights..

They don't have to make a profit on them as they're a loss leader. It's something to attract the masses in. Just like the 12p loafs of bread in the supermakets years ago. It's a real problem for Sky, everyone else that tried to take them on needed to make a clear profit to stay in Business. They were TV companies first and foremost. BT want to connect people to their phone/broadband lines, they use TV as a tool. It's a different approach, that doesn't mean that it will work, but this is the first real competitor SKY have ever had.

lertsnim

losthorizon wrote: »

Europa League games never get blocked for me

That's strange. Its blocked for everyone else using a Setanta sub on satellite or UPC. Only ever seen it work on a UK sub or someone using illegal means to get BT Sport

losthorizon

Local cable company in waterford

lertsnim

Which company is that?

paulboland

Sky Box with Irish sub to Setanta
Add uk versions of Setanta Ireland and Premire Sports
Using add channels feature

Setanta Sports 1 transmits when it's not premire broadcast

I tried this a few weeks ago
Note premire aka Setanta sports 1
I had to add again recent as freq changed

lertsnim

What UK version of Setanta Ireland?

paulboland

lertsnim wrote: »

What UK version of Setanta Ireland?

Setanta Northern Ireland

12633 H
22000
5/6
Add Channels
Setanta Ireland
Setanta Sports 1
Premier Sports

Premier Sports will work with Setanta subscription on sky
Premier Sports = Setanta Sports 1

robertwilliam

The Cush wrote: »

An article in the Sunday Business Post today speculates that the Irish Champions League TV rights from the 2015/16 season onward could end up exclusively on BT Sport or Sky.

The invitation-to-tender for the British rights closed last Friday with BT Sports and Sky Sports expected to be the main bidders and a potential £1 billion bid.

The Irish right haven't been opened for tender yet but UEFA said a British bidder could win the rights exclusively. A precedent has been set with the Scandinavian European Championship and World Cup qualifiers going to the SBS Group.

Setanta, BT Sport and Sky did not comment

Also - ITV's Champions League bid fears as UEFA set precedent in France

BT Sport spends £1bn and now eyes a shot at the Champions League
High stakes game for TV rights will keep UEFA's club giants content

probably better coverage

L1011

lertsnim wrote: »

Which company is that?

Casey Cablevision I'd guess.

Digifriendly

First time Sky has been outbid by another competitor re football rights.

Guffy

Ha if everyone boycotted bt for a season they wont be long goin bust. 1 billion is a joke.

icdg

gufc21 wrote: »

Ha if everyone boycotted bt for a season they wont be long goin bust. 1 billion is a joke.

Most of their UK subscribers are getting it bundled with something else, either BT Broadband or as part of a Virgin Media package.

munchkin_utd

gufc21 wrote: »

Ha if everyone boycotted bt for a season they wont be long goin bust. 1 billion is a joke.

1 billion over 3 years is 333 a year so small enough considering that BT make 2 billion profit per year on a turnover of over 20 billion.

So, no, they wont go bust as they can cover the cost of the 3 year deal out of 6 months profits.

But I cant see how they can be making money on it either. With 900,000 TV customers currently, if you got 100% of them to pay 15 pounds a month you'd still only have 160million or so over the year.

They are probably just writing off the loss as part of their process of getting their TV platform established, which by the way is what Sky did in the beginning by paying what was an unbelievable sum of money for the premiership.
Sky spent many many years building up their subscriber base to break even, and thats what BT are doing now.

Dozen Wicked Words

So could Sky not just bid for irish rights, small enough outlay could persuade more here to subscribe, and maybe hang on to subscribers it's losing.

The Cush

Dozen Wicked Words wrote: »

So could Sky not just bid for irish rights, small enough outlay could persuade more here to subscribe, and maybe hang on to subscribers it's losing.

They could, see post #1.

radiowaves

The Cush wrote: »

They could, see post #1.

Would they be that interested? I would hope so but obviously it would necessitate a separate Sky Sports Ireland channel.
The 3pm Saturday might also become more worthwhile to them too.

I'm far from convinced that BT will be able to show any more than a couple of matches here if they get the rights; in that respect Sky would be welcome.

Cantona's Collars

ITV have signed a deal to broadcast highlights until 2018.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a533353/itv-to-show-champions-league-europa-league-highlights-until-2018.html

Elmo

According to the TV3's semi 2015 launch today they have UEFA champions and europa leagues in 2015.

channelsurfer2

Elmo wrote: »

According to the TV3's semi 2015 launch today they have UEFA champions and europa leagues in 2015.

that would be correct. the contract is for 2014-2015 so technically they have Champions league in 2015 but may not have it from September 2015 onwards if they dont win the rights again. the BT deal kicks in from the Start of the 2015 season.

The Cush

Elmo wrote: »

According to the TV3's semi 2015 launch today they have UEFA champions and europa leagues in 2015.

For the first half of the year 2014/15, the RoI rights for the 2015/16 - 2017/18 haven't been tendered for yet - http://www.uefa.org/MultimediaFiles/Download/Publications/uefaorg/Marketing/01/96/76/90/1967690_DOWNLOAD.pdf

RED L4 0TH

According to today's Irish Times the Irish CL rights will be awarded early next year.

irishtimes.com/business/sectors/media-and-marketing/champions-league-should-prove-good-contest-for-broadcasters-1.1803970

Elmo

RED L4 0TH wrote: »

According to today's Irish Times the Irish CL rights will be awarded early next year.

irishtimes.com/business/sectors/media-and-marketing/champions-league-should-prove-good-contest-for-broadcasters-1.1803970

I saw that, I think it is the first time in a broadcasting piece about TV3, UTV or RTÉ that the Irish Times have mentioned that TV3, Setanta and RTÉ have yet to get the Champions and Europa League and that BT and Sky will be getting ready to bid against them.

channelsurfer2

Would sky want them now they won't have UK rights? BT might alright but rte will not be allowed bid excessively.

Elmo

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

Would sky want them now they won't have UK rights? BT might alright but rte will not be allowed bid excessively.

If they are the right price Sky could go for them, nothing stopping sky from having an Irish opt-out service for their sports channel. It may mean that they will have to set up a separate channel or set of channels for the Irish market. All depends on subscriptions.

I'd imagine that BT might do a deal with Setanta so Setanta can keep their games.

I can see TV3 dropping them TBH.

RED L4 0TH

Elmo wrote: »

I saw that, I think it is the first time in a broadcasting piece about TV3, UTV or RTÉ that the Irish Times have mentioned that TV3, Setanta and RTÉ have yet to get the Champions and Europa League and that BT and Sky will be getting ready to bid against them.

What's the chances I wonder of a repeat of the UK scenario, where the RoI terrestrial broadcasters may end up being offered a highlights package only?

Onthe3rdDay

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

Would sky want them now they won't have UK rights? BT might alright but rte will not be allowed bid excessively.

I'd agree with the question would Sky want the rights. They do seem to be a station that loses interest in Irish rights if the UK rights aren't available. RTE will have one hand tied behind their back. It would make little sense for UTV to go for them as they won't be able to broadcast them in the North and will in the South, plus ITV will have a full schedule to replace the champions league night. So they're probably out as well.

So it's probably down to Setanta/BT and TV3. It shouldn't be too hard for TV3 to get a share of the rights but with them anything is possible. (they might not even be around by the end of 2015) So most likely I would think all rights to Setanta/BT with either TV3 or RTE having one night a week.

ftakeith

sky won't go for the rights from 2015

its bt sport, setanta, rtetv, tv3 or utvI for the irish tv rights

radiowaves

I'm confused - according to some on here the fact that BT have the UK rights automatically means they have the rights for here

In fact, because a BT CS agent told one member that they have them for here it's been taken as fact

(The same CS agents telling some subscribers that they have CL football from NEXT season btw )

channelsurfer2

radiowaves wrote: »

I'm confused - according to some on here the fact that BT have the UK rights automatically means they have the rights for here

In fact, because a BT CS agent told one member that they have them for here it's been taken as fact

(The same CS agents telling some subscribers that they have CL football from NEXT season btw )

the CS agents may be right in that Sky used to broadcast them here even though technically RTE and Setanta/TV3 had rights. the irish rights are always tendered seperately but for some reason SKY who did not bid for seperate irish rights always showed them here(probably with no objection from rte or tv3).
BT may have the same arrangement from 2015.

icdg

For me I can see one of the following scenarios happening:

(1) The existing franchise holders retain their rights with the proviso that BT Sport can also broadcast their coverage here. This is the best case scenario for everyone I think.

(2) BT Sport gets the Irish rights, and sub licences the same games that they are sublicencing/broadcasting free to air in the UK, to Setanta or an Irish free to air broadcaster.

(3) The existing franchise holders retain their rights and no proviso is made for BT Sport. Note that this scenario would mean the end of Match Choice and a maximum of three Champions League games being broadcast here per match day.

I cannot see Sky being involved in the bidding on this one, they don't tend to bid for separate ROI rights if they don't have the UK rights.

channelsurfer2

I will hazard a guess that it willl be Bt/setanta with an outside chance tv3 may get some games and that either way the BT games will be shown here on the BT channel/

Elmo

I would have thought that sky's gaa coverage is a clear signal that they are interested.

Onthe3rdDay

Elmo wrote: »

I would have thought that sky's gaa coverage is a clear signal that they are interested.

Sky have the Ireland and UK rights for the GAA games they're covering. Just having Irish rights would be more trouble than they're worth (for champions League). They would have to either set up a separate channel or have regional variations for at least one of the SKY Sports Channels. While having regional variations is good for commercials, it's probably not worth their while financially to do the same for whole programmes.

Elmo

Onthe3rdDay wrote: »

Sky have the Ireland and UK rights for the GAA games they're covering. Just having Irish rights would be more trouble than they're worth (for champions League). They would have to either set up a separate channel or have regional variations for at least one of the SKY Sports Channels. While having regional variations is good for commercials, it's probably not worth their while financially to do the same for whole programmes.

If the keep irish subscribers I don't see why it won't be worthwhile.

It would be very different to sky news Ireland but it shows the possibility.

I am assuming that they will have a studio for GAA coverage in Ireland.