The path that Sky takes in the future as it faces up to the competitive challenge from BT will influence how much the Premier League obtains for its television rights and hence the income of top clubs.
A wholesale deal with BT – with each company making its channels available through the other’s packages – could remove the risk of spiralling sports rights packages. This would tend to hold back the growth of Premiership income.
The path that Sky takes in the future as it faces up to the competitive challenge from BT will influence how much the Premier League obtains for its television rights and hence the income of top clubs.
A wholesale deal with BT – with each company making its channels available through the other’s packages – could remove the risk of spiralling sports rights packages. This would tend to hold back the growth of Premiership income.
Alternatively, Sky could bid aggressively in the 2015 auction, paying as much as £1.6bn a year for six out of seven packages, forcing BT out of the wholesale content market. Such a strategy would boost Premiership income.
Another possibility is that 21st Century Fox, which holds a 39.1 per cent stake in Sky, could resurrect the takeover attempted in 2011 by News Corp which was blown out of the water by the phone hacking scandal. 21st Century Fox owns all of Sky Italia and a majority stake in Sky Deutschland, so it could consolidate the units into Sky Europe. However, Sky’s valuation is so dependent on the outcome of the next Premier League rights action that it may wait until after then.
Another possibility is an agreement or even a merger between Sky and Vodafone that would allow Sky to sellow its customers mobile phone contracts alongside broadband and TV packages.