Just in from here: http://www.laligatalk.com/exclusive...rk-wins-la-liga-us-tv-rights-says-source-4407 As it states in that article, only on DishNetwork (atleast in HD).
My opinion... AJSN has a lot of work to do to get it to all Americans. Either sub-lease rights/broker deals to channels with more distribution, or get that actual distribution themselves. Hopefully (somehow?) GolTV/ESPN can get Spanish rights for El Classicos and/or Real/Barca games. Fun summer ahead
Damn, there's gonna be plenty of games to be Sublicensed to ESPN!! Hope JSC FORCE them to show the games on ESPN2
Again, do NOT automatically assume that La Liga will air on a new Al Jazeera-branded sports channel in the U.S. Al Jazeera has the cash to buy an existing channel (with Spanish-language audio) for the purpose of acquiring its subscribers and its branding, if it wants to. La nueva ----- esta aqui. Tu canal del futbol. Again, Univision and Televisa cannot be happy about this. Univision was the odds-on favorite (among existing Spanish-language U.S. sports TV companies) to win the rights, but came home from Rio empty-handed because a player with much, much deeper pockets (deeper than Univision, deeper than NewsCorp, deeper than ESPN, Inc.) has decided to muscle into the region. To recap, Al Jazeera will have the U.S. video rights to at least 3 soccer products in the new contract cycle: - La Liga - Ligue 1 - CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers though November 2013 (live via pay-per-view, with delayed rights headed for the new channel)
The existing Arabic-language Al Jazeera Sports USA is available on DISH Network Channel 601 and via digital cable. The NEW Spanish-language sports network from Al Jazeera, where La Liga will be headed, currently has no name and no distribution. Al Jazeera has two options for Spanish-language distribution of La Liga in the U.S.: 1. Launch a new channel and negotiate new carriage deals with each pay TV provider (slow and painful process that will take years, not months or weeks.) 2. Buy an existing sports channel (with Spanish-language audio) to acquire its existing carriage deals with pay TV providers (and its associated subscribers), and a brand that does not carry the stigma associated with Al Jazeera. There is no mystery which existing U.S. sports channel would want to sell to Al Jazeera at the right price. La nueva -------- esta aqui. Tu canal del futbol.
The negative stigma is that most Americans know Al Jazeera (incorrectly or not) for being the go to guy for terrorist organizations to release beheading videos of soldiers and reporters to.
What are the odds that AJ goes on with the current Sub-licensing deal with ESPN? If AJ buy GOLTV will it be more likely that GOLTV gets more HD distribution (i.e. Comcast) and would AJ have any sort of ESPN3 or Foxsoccer online distribution? Is there any chance at all that DTV subscribers still get 9 games per round and the rest get 6 games a round or are those glorious days over?
For those of you who want to estimate the valuation of GOLTV, Inc. (U.S.A.): http://www.thecab.tv/php/networkprofiles/11profileData/11_pdfs/11GOLTV.pdf - 13 million subscribers, of which 3.4 million (26%) are Hispanic, and 86% of whom are "Spanish-dominant" (which means they can understand Spanish-language advertising), as of 2011 http://allthingsd.com/20100308/hate-paying-for-cable-heres-the-reason-why/ - subscriber fee of $0.11/month as of 2009 according to SNL Kagan. I am guessing that the current subscriber fee is around $0.15/month. GOLTV's rights in the U.S. for the next contract cycle: 1. German Bundesliga (renewed with DFL Sports Enterprises through May 2015) - 34 rounds of 4 to 5 matches each plus the German Supercup, but 2 matches from each round have been sublicensed to ESPN, Inc. The only Bundesliga brand with significant value in the U.S., Bayern Munich, will appear on GOLTV approximately once every two weeks from early August though the middle of December and from the middle of January through May. Rights in English and Spanish cover all platforms (TV, Internet, mobile.) 2. Brazilian National Championship and Sao Paulo State Championship package from Globo TV Sports (renewed through December 2015) - Up to 2 matches each round for 80 rounds (including 4 rounds of Sao Paulo State playoffs) plus the Sao Paulo State Final match, but 1 match from each round has been sublicensed to ESPN, Inc. Rights for TV only in English and Spanish. No Internet or mobile rights. 3. Argentine League matches featuring Boca Juniors and River Plate (through June 2014) - 76 matches each season (August - early December and February - June). Rights in English and Spanish cover all platforms (TV, Internet, mobile.) 4. 48-hour tape-delayed TV rights to selected CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers NOT involving Mexico or US national teams (through October 2013; via agreement with Integrated Sports in conjunction with Traffic Sports USA, in exchange for providing production services for live pay-per-view telecasts marketed by Integrated Sports.)
My quick and dirty estimate of the valuation of GOLTV's U.S. business: around $150 to $200 million, including assumption of debt. Al Jazeera should have no trouble with that amount of money.
Regardless of whether Al Jazeera decide to 1) start a new Spanish-language sports channel for the Americas, or 2) buy an existing sports channel with Spanish-language audio, 3 things are almost 100% certain: 1. The channel will NOT be branded "Al Jazeera" 2. The channel will broadcast in Spanish (no guarantee that an English-language audio feed or English-language closed-captioning will be available.) 3. The channel will likely be based in South Florida instead of Doha, Mexico City, or Buenos Aires (presumably because Spanish-speaking TV talent don't want to work and live in Qatar. Furthermore, the talent would prefer the U.S. over Mexico City or Buenos Aires for safety reasons. Examples include two former female anchors of ESPN SportsCenter [Mexico], both with young children, leaving Mexico City for jobs based in the U.S. )
if GolTV has debt, why wouldn't Al J pull a Fox Soccer Plus and start a new channel and wait for GolTV to bleed itself dry then pick up their attractive rights at a song?
Unlike FOX, Al Jazeera currently does not have a sports channel in the U.S., in Spanish or English. Al Jazeera would be the one that would bleed a lot of red ink if it were to act on its own in the U.S. (About $100 million in startup costs, plus rights fees and production costs.) Furthermore, the only live rights package GOLTV, Inc. will have for the U.S. (after La Liga expires) that has value in the U.S. Hispanic market is the Argentine League, and that deal will expire in 2014. ESPN Deportes has only about 6 million subscribers after 8 years of operation. By the time a new Spanish-language sports channel operated by Al Jazeera reaches 5 million U.S. subscribers, the rights agreements for the next cycle (La Liga, Ligue 1, etc.) will be over.
It is way too early in the end game to be so negative. I am aware that ego and pride are involved, but the cooler heads in the executive suites will eventually have to sit down and look hard at the numbers again. == The most sensible route, in my opinion, is for GOLTV, Inc. to sell its U.S. business to Al Jazeera at a reasonable valuation (i.e. $200 million or less.) That would prevent the major U.S. pay TV operators from being able to open up the carriage contracts of GOLTV U.S. for review and eliminate the risk of subscriber loss, from 13 million down to just 4 million if all the pay TV operators were to remove GOLTV U.S. from the English-language sports tiers. Otherwise, Al Jazeera will be $120 million in the hole (assuming $100 million in startup costs and another $20 million in up front rights fee payments) before the first La Liga match ever airs on its new U.S. Spanish-language sports TV network in August 2012, and that new channel will be lucky to reach 5 million U.S. households by May 2015. == For all of ESPN, Inc.'s power and clout in the U.S., its ESPN Deportes Spanish-language sports TV channel is only able to reach 6 million U.S. households early in its 9th year of 24/7 operation. == La Liga would have been a nice addition for Univision Deportes by providing live matches on weekend afternoons to complement the Saturday night Liga Mexicana tripleheader, but it certainly was not something that Univision absolutely had to have in the upcoming cycle. Univision will get another chance to bid on the U.S. rights to La Liga 3 years from now.
The Problem here is that no one knows what is the thought process at AJ. An arab network taking over La liga rights. I know they have some big plans, and yes it would make so much sense for them the buy either all or a majority stake at Goltv, but really, AJ? They also have the CONMEBOL World Cup eliminations, but that is getting very little traction with South Americans here in the states. It is going to be a very interesting summer.
The CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers won't get much attention until 2013, when teams start fighting for the final qualifying spot. Without Brazil this time around, only two teams have enough value in the U.S. market to be worthwhile for the qualifiers to be marketed as pay-per-view products: Argentina and Colombia.
My prediction of what will happen here ESPN Australia will cut back on showing some of the minor La Liga games on television as one or two of the matches they were showing were ESPN Deportes games which was dubbed into English for ESPN Australia and ESPN3.com. Since ESPNStar has recently picked up the rights in Asia I could see ESPN3.com (Australia only) tapping into ESPNStar Player online feeds like they have with the Champions league this year to bring us less games on television but a greater choice online via ESPN3.com. Could also see some room for Serie A to return to ESPN as the current rights holder ONE HD has made it clear they don't want them by showing matches in the early hours of the morning on delay by 2-5 days and since ONE HD sub licensing deal with Setanta fell through after 1 year I think the return to Setanta would be very unlikely, ESPN is the likely choice as they can share feeds with ESPN UK as well as using the current ESPN3.com feeds for online use
Until the rights in the South Pacific are sold, it is way too early to speculate what FOX Sports Australia, ESPN Australia, One HD, etc. will do. == It should be clear to everyone by now that the Qataris want to launch new sports TV networks (under a new brand instead of Al Jazeera) to promote the major European club football brands the Qataris control. The Qataris currently control 2 major European club football brands: 1. Paris St. Germain - full ownership 2. FC Barcelona - Qatar Foundation is the ONLY shirt sponsor in the history of the club ====== The major Italian clubs are not available to the Qataris at this time. Roma was bought recently by an American investor. The Big 3 (AC Milan, Inter, Juve) have very stable ownership and major sponsors so they are NOT for sale at any price. FOX (NewsCorp) appears to have locked down the rights to Serie A in the Americas for the next cycle (except in Canada, where FOX no longer has any minority ownership interest in sports networks.) The U.S. rights have not been announced yet, but FOX knocked out ESPN in Spanish-speaking Latin America and Brazil. I do not believe Al Jazeera will attempt to bid for the U.S. rights to Serie A. The best Serie A matches usually kickoff on Saturdays and Sundays at 2045 CET (except the Lazio-Roma derbies, which must kick off before 1800 CET due to police and mayoral request,) which overlap with the best Ligue 1 matches at 2100 CET. -- The Qataris haven't made a move in England yet. As for all the British reports suggesting that Al Jazeera might bid against BSkyB for EPL rights in the UK: I continue to believe that ESPN UK, not BSkyB, is the one that Al Jazeera is more likely to displace if Al Jazeera were to enter that market. Don't forget about Abu Dhabi, which made a massive overbid ($300 million/season) for EPL rights in the Middle East/Northern Africa a few years ago. Abu Dhabi is basically bankrolling the Premier League Network, which is relayed on AD Sports 5 HD.
While i dont think Al J will bid for all the TV packages i really dont think they would only settle for one package like ESPN did. ESPN really just wanted to establish itself where AL J Sports looks like it wants to be one of the big networks in the world, so i would be surprised if they walked away with 3 of the 7 tv packages.
someone mentioned earlier that it was probably odds on that Al Jazeera will buyout Goltv continue with it their branding.. I doubt that.. Al Jazeera want their brand out their.. I see them getting Goltv for the existing subscriber base..but im sure they will rebrand the channel.. Al Jazeera Sports US like the rest of their channels worldwide.. I would not see any of the current "talent"..(used loosely) staying on also.. Al Jazeera will spare no expense in importing the best on air talent. I see this as a true positive for football in the US. Cantona---