Big stakes in Europe’s TV soccer rights game between pay-TV providers and telecoms companies
It’s the latest round in an escalating fight over European soccer rights between traditional pay-TV providers and telecoms companies.
And it’s one the pay-TV tycoons Mr Bollore and Rupert Murdoch can’t afford to lose.
Canal Plus, the French pay-TV group owned by Mr Bollore’s Vivendi, scored big on Thursday when it announced an exclusive five-year distribution deal with Al Jazeera’s BeIN Sports channel, owner of rights for Champions League soccer in France and for much of its domestic league.
It’s far from certain to get past antitrust concerns, but if it does it will allow Vivendi back into a sports broadcasting game that’s been dominated by Qatari-owned BeIN over the past four years, at considerable cost to the Canal Plus bottom line.
If it goes ahead, it would also dent Mr Drahi’s ambitions to become a force in sports TV.
Numericable-SFR, the French telecoms operator owned by Mr Drahi’s Altice, beat Canal Plus recently in an auction for the local rights to English Premier League soccer, pushing up the price of the package by 60%.
That huge inflationary pressure is being felt across Europe as telecoms companies compete with incumbent pay-TV providers for content that helps sell broadband and mobile services.
Mr Murdoch’s Sky paid a whopping 70% increase — taking its price to £4.2 billion (€5.4bn) — to keep the lion’s share of English Premier League rights for 2016-2019 out of BT’s clutches. The impact of that won’t be seen until later this year.
Even terminally conservative Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao might bid for rights to Germany’s Bundesliga games, despite warning that the spiralling cost of televised games threatens to be a “drag for the whole industry.”
Vodafone’s German interest is more bad news for Mr Murdoch, who’ll be forced to pay up again to keep hold of the rights.
So far, Britain’s BT and Spain’s Telefonica have moved deepest into pay-TV’s football territory.
BT spent about £1bn on a smaller package of English Premier League rights, and has nabbed the English Champions League package from Mr Murdoch.
But its sports foray appears to be paying off, returning its consumer business to growth.
After launching its sports channels in May 2013, revenue at the consumer unit rose 11% in two years and Ebitda rose 13%.
In Spain, Telefonica was bolder: It bought satellite pay-TV company Digital+ last year for €706m.
The telecoms leader became the pay-TV incumbent, forcing rivals Vodafone and Orange to get in to the sports rights game too. Germany is the next battleground.
Sky paid €2.5bn last time around and expects competing bids from telecoms rivals in a spring auction.
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