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Articles concerning television and broadcasting issues in football.
Chelsea can expect to earn a total of £45m in television cash from Uefa for their Champions League campaign this year. This will increase by £2.8m if they win the trophy. Clubs can usually double that income from ticket sales, sponsorship and merchandise. The income is particularly important for Chelsea given their need to comply with financial fair play rules.
Al Jazeera has decided not to bid for the Premier League television rights when the next auction starts in August for a three year period. Al Jazeera had been seriously considering such a move as part of its plans to build a global sports brand.
The form of the packages to be offered has not yet been decided, but the Premier League had been hoping that Al Jazeera, backed by Qatar’s gas and oil wealth, would go head-to-head with Sky. It now looks as if only BSkyB and ESPN will be involved in the main packages.
Sky Deutschland has tightened its grip on live coverage of Bundesliga football, although it will now pay almost twice as much as it did before.
The pay-TV channel has won the rights to show matches on the web, as well as extending those for cable and satellite broadcasts, for four seasons from August 2013. The decision was a setback for Deutsche Telekom, which had blaunched a much-hyped bid for satellite and cable rights as a complement to the mobile web and IPTV rights it wanted to extend.
The Premier League is thinking of repackaging the sale of the television rights to screen live matches in Europe to offset the impact of last year’s court ruling in the so-called ‘pub landlady’ case on its lucrative income.
Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, has said that the competition may abandon the sale of its rights on a country-by-country basis and sell them across Europe instead, something that is more compatible with the idea of a single market.
International media rights are sold collectively by the Premier League, but Liverpool FC has expressed interest in taking control of those rights, particularly in Asia where the club is very popular. Fenway Sports Group (FSG) chairman Tom Werner told the Financial Times, ‘We certainly want to increase awareness [of the club] in Asia … if we can’t do that by transmitting the matches live, we still want to appeal to our fans there.’
It looks as if there is going to be plenty of competition when the Bundesliga auctions its TV rights for 2013-17 in April. The current holders, Sky Deutschland, are reported to be paying around €250m a year and are keen to retain the rights.
However, there is strong competition from broadcasters RTL ProSieben and internet groups such as Deutsche Telekom and the league is hoping for an increase in income of at least 10 per cent.
We often get letters (well, emails) asking about the level of Merit Payments and TV Facility Fees for Premier League football clubs. Whilst we have published some data in the past, it’s not always easy to get a proper picture of how the system works.
Some time ago I was quite surprised to be asked by Al Jazeera if I could come into their London studio to talk about football. As it happened, I couldn’t make it but perhaps I should have seen the straw in the wind.
The Qatari broadcaster has been awarded the majority of media rights to screen Uefa Champions League matches in France for three years from 2012 in a deal worth €180m. This is a serious blow to French pay-TV operator Canal Plus.
Manchester United’s elimination from the Champions League before the group stage will hit them hard financially. They could be between £14m and £18m worse off than last season when they reached the final.
The book I have edited with Borja Garcia from Spain and Arne Niemann from Germany on the transformation of European football has now been published by Manchester University Press. A 20 per cent discount is available to our readers who contact us through our e-mail address.