BSkyB Outbids ESPN For Majority Of EPL Packages
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
I really thought that ESPN had a shot at stealing away the English Premier League, but that wasn't the case late Tuesday night. The satellite company, BSkyB, outbid ESPN and Setanta, and in the process picked up four of the six EPL live match packages. Via Reuters....
Britain's dominant pay-TV group BSkyB (BSY.L) won the right to show four of the six packages of English Premier League live soccer matches for the three years starting in 2010, the league said late on Tuesday.There's obviously still a chance that the American network could snag the final two packages, but with Setanta still looming, it's probably not likely. You Soccer fans now only have the 2010 World Cup to look forward to on the "Leader".
BSkyB, which has lured over 9 million subscribers with its sport and movie offering, currently has the right to show four of the six packages. Privately owned Setanta shows the remainder.
Under that agreement, which ends in August 2010, BSkyB pays 1.3 billion pounds ($1.85 billion) to show the matches over the three years. Setanta paid 392 million pounds for two packages.
In a statement, the league said there would be a second round of bidding for the remaining two packages in "due course." It did not disclose any financial terms.
BSkyB wins 4 of 6 Premier League rights packages (Reuters)
11 Comments:
Sky Sports has Martin Tyler and Andy Gray, who rip apart Derek Rae and Tommy Smyth.
I'm happy today.
So where does this leave US viewers?
@ John, watching the Fox Soccer Channel for EPL games.
Well, on the plus side, I am looking forward to the 2010 World Cup. For whatever reason, international soccer competitions such as the Euros and the World Cup appeal to me more than the various leagues (i.e. EPL, Serie A, etc.)
These are for the English rights only. BSkyB retained the rights to its four packages. ESPN is still in the hunt for the two packages Setanta Sports owns.
The US rights which Setanta and Fox Soccer Channel own will be up for bid after the UK rights are settled.
wonder if that means star sports and espn asia will still have the rights here in asia hope so now to get rid of those damm korean announcers who are obsessed with Park Ji-sung no matter who is playing. you should of heard them during the super bowl with hines ward
@SSReporters: "With a yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
Wow, that would be the second time within three months that ESPN got outbid by an european PayTV Group.
Last November, ESPN lost to Premiere in the German Bundesliga biddings. According to several sources, ESPN had the better offer moneywise, but didn't get the Bundesliga, because the League itself declined having another desaster after PayTV group "arena" (owned by an german cable provider) got broken after just one season.
Premiere (now owned by News Corp.) has its own problems. Premiere lost over 1/3 of its subscriptions. Round about 900.000 subscribers were charged off, because they didn't had a subscription.
Good. Leave that shit across the pond.
This doesn't mean anything. Sky was bidding for domestic rights which also require production of the games. ESPN is not ready to make that commitment. They will be seriously bidding for the remaining two packages which are for international broadcast, the two packages that are held by Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta now.
Guess this means no more soccer results on the Bottom Line this weekend?