So does this mean the Bundesliga will now become the top dog in European football? The majority of German clubs seem to be well run financially and fill their stadiums every week, an increase in TV revenue will surely cement their position given the new Financial Fair Play regulations coming in. Is foreign ownership of clubs allowed in Germany? It’s a wonder some Arab billionaire hasn’t tried to takeover a club like Hertha Berlin and attempt to turn them into a major power in German football.
Is this a Setanta Sports style move Rocko? I was reading a bit about it and they really needed to secure the rights.
The German clubs are all owned in the majority by the club’s owners. They need to have over 50% ownership by club members so that restricts the potential for involvement.
Despite that you get some exceptions or workarounds. Gazprom took a significant interest in Schalke through a huge sponsorship deal which funded the club but they can’t actually own it so that’s the type of deal that would seem to be ideal for fans - investment with no ownership. Hoffenheim have benefited from the generosity of their benefactor but again he’s just putting money into the club without taking it on. Red Bull are doing something similar in Leipzig where they have a new stadium but no decent football club. Again they have to do this through increasing commercial relationships with a club but they can’t actually take over.
The big problem for Setanta was when they lost out to Sky in renewing the EPL rights and ended up with the minimum package. I think that’s when investors walked away. Sky Deutschland is half owned by Murdoch (same as UK Sky roughly I think) and I’d imagine they’d be protected from the same level of problems but they have a murky enough financial past. They certainly gambled on securing these rights but their share price was up 30% or something this morning on the back of this news so it looks like it’s being seen as a gamble that paid off.
Bit early to say its paid off. I believe the share price collapsed a similar amount after someone else said they were bidding for it.
The Germans do seem to be on a much more stable financial footing alright
I mean it paid off in the sense that they got the rights. They’d have been dead as a company if they lost out to someone. Whether they overpaid or not remains to be seen. The losers in the bidding contest seem to have had a boost to their share price too.
Might be one of those you are better off losing.
News Corp own 39% of BSkyB.
I disagree with you in that Setanta losing out to Sky for second lowest EPL package was the undoing of them. They got their tactics wrong in that they paid over the odds for EPL matches which were by and large scraps off Sky’s table. Before then they had secured a semi decent portfolio with some good boxing, USPGA golf, Rugby World Cup (they then sold some or rights on), Seria A, Bundesliga, Eredivisie. Had they contiuned to focus on these and then looked to build on it by going after virtually every sporting event (that isn’t free listed) rather than going for EPL in first place they would have attracted more viewers and at a lower price. ESPN have been disappointing too but conservative in their bidding and pricing. There is a niche there for undervalued rights anyways imo.
Looks like BSkyB could be losing La Liga next year meanwhile.
I’d like to agree with that but the reality is that their investors put seed capital in on the promise of challenging Sky and to do that they needed EPL. They weren’t going after the Eurosport market (though I agree that the prices for the secondary stuff picked up by ESPN is very low). They were a subscriber channel so needed premium content. The reality in the UK is that the EPL dwarfs everything there and if you don’t have that you won’t get subscribers.
The price they paid for US golf was ridiculous. £103m for four years or something and don’t think they got a single major for that (maybe one).
I certainly think securing the Champions League would represent better value. It is £100 million a year for complete package which is good value considering EPL is about £400 million a year for complete package. If you added following to the mix you’d have much more appealing package than what Setanta had imo.
- La Liga
- Rugby World Cup
- Six Nations Rugby Union
- Heineken Cup
- Superleague
- Test Match Cricket
- Formula 1
- The European PGA Tour
- USPGA Tour
- Ryder Cup
- Ulster Rugby TV
- Three cycling grand tours
- All majors in tennis with exception on Wimbledon
- BDO Darts
Don’t think any of the above are listed. While sum total would add up to fair some they would have been better targeting them than going after scrapings off Sky’s EPL
What’s the story with Sky’s Formula One coverage? Is it only on a dedicated pay per view channel or what because I haven’t seen a mention of it on Sky since they got the rights which I find very surprising. Granted I don’t watch ads or Sky Sports News.
No you get it as part of their Sports Package. Just an extra channel. The great David Croft works for the not so great tv channel.
Champions League won’t be exclusively on subscription channels though. F1 is ridiculously overpriced and requires investment in a dedicated channel as Setanta found to their cost when they were obliged to show qualifying ahead of soccer matches.
I wouldn’t pay much or anything for that package of sports you’ve listed above to be honest.
Not saying they should have gone for everything but there is better value out there. Much better getting exclusive rights to events like the ashes, tour de france, six nations, selection of champions league matches (it isn’t listed event and UEFA’s eagerness to get some of group matches on free view will diminish imo) etc rather than try and get matches Sky didn’t want in EPL and pay an absolute fortune for them. I think there is significant demand for some of those events and cost of securing some of them would be fraction as to what they would have to pay to get a very good EPL package.
I know there are plenty of Eurosceptics around your neck of the woods but you’re ignoring the role of the European Commission in the sale of Champions League rights there. Just because it’s not listed in the UK doesn’t mean it’s not protected.
What is protected? All group games?
I’ll concede that I’m shit at English but surely it’s patently obvious that the club owners would own the majority of clubs?
Maybe even all of them?
Sorry, members. Put some gel in your hair.
I’m not sure that information is in the public domain. The agreement between the EU and UEFA stipulates that a balance must be struck between free and pay television. As the rights for Tuesdays and Wednesdays are sold in separate packages this presumably means that the Sky/ITV deal is the optimum balance they’re looking for.
As an aside I was just discussing the matter with a well known tv personality who was in my house and he has confirmed my understanding.