Just before Christmas officials from the FA Premier League sent out invitations to brodacasters to tender for the television rights for the three seasons starting in August 2010. Last time the value of the rights increased by 60 per cent, but no one is expecting such a big increase this time, although the Premiership is still hoping for a small increase. A blind auction for the rights will take place in the spring.
Just before Christmas officials from the FA Premier League sent out invitations to brodacasters to tender for the television rights for the three seasons starting in August 2010. Last time the value of the rights increased by 60 per cent, but no one is expecting such a big increase this time, although the Premiership is still hoping for a small increase. A blind auction for the rights will take place in the spring. One factor that will affect the bids is that Ofcom plans to introduce a system whereby Sky would be obliged to offer more of its channels on a wholesale basis to rival television operators such as Virgin or BT. They could then market them to their retail customers. This could reduce the attractiveness of making a bid given that rival broadcasters would be able to acquire rights to matches anyway.
Sky is certain to renew its rights and Setanta must also ensure that it is able to keep screening the Premiership. How Setanta finances a bid remains open to question. It seemslikely the existing shareholders, which include private equity firms Doughty Hanson and Balderton Capital – which are both known to be supportive of the operation – will have to contribute extra funding. However, it is not thought that a huge amount of funding will be required. The Setanta operation is close to breaking even after reaching almost 1.5 million subscribers since acquiring the Premiership rights. The dark horse in the race is ESPN, the American sports broadcaster that is 80 per cent owned by Walt Disney. In Britain it currently owns two channels, one featuring archive sports events and another showing American sports. It would probably need to create a new channel if it won the Premiership rights.