Multichannel News: beIN Sports USA will launch 2 channels on August 1

Kudos to Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News to finally got Qatar Media and Imagina U.S. (MEDIAPRO) to talk. His article was published at around 4pm Eastern Time on Thursday May 17:

http://www.multichannel.com/article...air_of_Soccer_Channels_in_U_S_this_August.php

One interesting note: beIN Sports USA is keeping rights to Ligue 1 in ENGLISH ONLY.

beIN Sports USA will also have Copa America 2015.

Two distribution deals have already been signed, and Imagina U.S. is hinting that viewers will have to "switch providers" in order to watch La Liga next season.

Although he would not identify the providers that beIN Sport was in advanced carriage talks, Briceño (VP of Affiliate Distribution for Imagina U.S.) insisted that the matches would be available to U.S. soccer fans this upcoming season. "You may have to switch providers," he noted.

As of right now, Briceño said beIn Sport has no plans to sublicense the rights it has obtained in the U.S. whatsoever.

 

The #2 man at Al Jazeera Sports, Youssef Mohammad Al-Obaidly, was the Qatar Media Corporation official who issued the statement to Multichannel News. Al-Obaidly was identified as the "managing director" of beIN Sports USA.

 

Up to $800 million in launch fees if Qatar Media really wants beIN Sports USA 1 and 2 to be on digital basic (i.e. MLB Network) or expanded basic.

The likes of Comcast and Time Warner Cable will extract their pounds of flesh from the Emir.

 

Get ready to either laugh or gasp...

An very reliable source has told me that he was informed by MP & Silva (the Italian agency in charge of marketing international media rights to Serie A, MLS, etc.) that Qatar Media Corporation bid over $75 million ($25 million/season) for U.S. rights to Serie A in 2012-2015.

And I though my original estimate of around $45 million ($15 million/season) was already deep in "insane" territory.

I don't believe FOX Sports Media Group paid more than $5 million/season for the 2-year U.S. rights deal (exclusive English and Spanish-language TV with non-exclusive internet rights) for Serie A that just expired.

Serie A drew an average of less than 60,000 viewers per match on FOX Soccer during the past 2 seasons.

Not a surprise to see FOX Soccer put up the white flag with regards to Serie A and used the last 4 months of the 2011-2012 Serie A season as a "laboratory"/"school" for junior production staff.

==

If Qatar Media were to bid over $300 million for U.S. media rights to English Premier League in 2013-2016, then I would be very surprised if even a 3-way partnership among FOX Sports Media Group, ESPN Inc., and Univision Communications will want to match that.

 

One piece of the story that makes NO SENSE:

If Qatar Media really has a ton of money and really wants to make a big splash in the U.S. market, then why isn't Qatar Media using the South American World Cup qualifying matches on June 2 and June 9 as a marketing event by giving those matches away to cable or satellite TV providers as an incentive to sign on to carry beIN Sports USA 1 and 2 at launch?

Instead, Imagina US (MEDIAPRO) is still monkeying around with pay-per-view distribution for those 8 matches, and the pay-per-view distribution deals are still not done yet.

(In contrast, Doug Jacobs has locked down pay-per-view deals for CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matches with DIRECTV, DISH, inDemand [Comcast/Time Warner Cable/Cox], and UStream.tv.)

Look, Telemundo showed the industry how effective the strategy of putting a big World Cup qualifying match (Mexico vs USA in August 2009) on a relatively obscure TV channel (mun2) and then giving away the channel for 24 hours was. mun2 got expanded basic carriage on DIRECTV (among others) within 12 months after that marketing event.

(I expect Univision to use the same strategy in 2013 by putting the English-language telecast on Mexico vs USA on "UnivisionABC News 24/7" and giving away the channel for 24 hours in free preview mode. You can't buy that kind of marketing for any price.)

 

Please take off your rose-colored glasses, re-read the paragraphs below and commit to your memory:

1. ESPN, Inc.'s live priorities in the U.S. are NFL Monday Night Football, "Big 5" major college football (SEC, B1G, XII, PAC, ACC), and "Power 6" major college basketball ("Big 5" leagues plus BIG EAST). EPL is somewhere outside the top 10, below Little League Baseball.

2. If Qatar Media were to bid over $300 million for U.S. media rights to EPL for 2013-2016 with written guarantee in the tender document that at least 6-8 matches will air on a channel with 80 million households or above via time-buy or sublicense (i.e. NBC Sports Network), then there is little to no chance FOX-ESPN (or FOX-ESPN-Univision) will be able to keep U.S. rights to EPL in 2013-2016.

3. Comcast and Time Warner Cable have enough LEVERAGE over Qatar Media (i.e. the threat of not carrying beIN Sports USA 1 and 2 at any price) to force Qatar Media into time-buy or sublicensing agreements for the best EPL and La Liga matches, but FOX does not, ESPN does not, and Univision does not.

4. History has shown that premium pro team sports media properties ultimately flow to the owners of the "pipes". That has happened in the U.K., South Africa, Middle East/North Africa (ex-Israel ex-Turkey,) Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Mexico, and Canada (among other places). That will eventually happen in the U.S. as long as the likes of Comcast are able to own both content and distribution.

 

The Senator from Comcast errrrrrrrrrrr Pennsylvania wrote the "Specter Amendment" to specifically exempt Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia from a law that requires all regional sports channels to be offered to every pay TV provider.

Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia remains the only major regional sports network in the U.S. that is NOT offered via direct broadcast satellite. As a result, Comcast continues to enjoy 95% pay TV market share in Philadelphia, well above the national average.

(Cox-owned Channel 4 San Diego is no longer considered a major regional sports network after it lost the rights to the San Diego Padres to FOX Sports San Diego.)

==

The longer Qatar Media stays the U.S. sports TV business, the greater the probability Comcast will be able to use its leverage to coerce Qatar Media into using its petro-currency to snatch more and more big events from the likes of ESPN and FOX.

EPL is on deck.

Big East Conference could be next.

We are in Year 1 of a very long "poker game" that will run through 2022.

 

Steering this back to topic...

The next U.S. media rights deal for 2013-2016 for the English Premier League is Qatar Media's to lose.

Qatar Media is now the heavy favorite. The partnership of FOX-ESPN (or FOX-ESPN-Univision) is the underdog.

$300 million for all the rights (regardless of whether everything will be sold in one bundle or separated into packages) will be beyond the threshold of pain for ESPN, FOX, and Univision.

[$90 million from FOX + $90 million from ESPN + $45 million from Univision = $225 million]

One way for Qatar Media to lose is if Qatar Media were either arrogant or stupid enough to submit to the FAPL a tender document WITHOUT a written guarantee that 6-8 big EPL matches each season (Manchester United vs Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, or Manchester City) will air on a U.S. TV network with a reach of at least 80 million households via time buy or sublicense.

The FAPL's attitude has changed after the GuangDong TV/WinTV fiasco in China in 2007-2009. Submitting the biggest bid is no longer enough to win the rights. The FAPL wants household clearance data from the bidders. Manchester United in particular will not allow the FAPL to accept a bid that has the potential to kill its brand in a major market such as the U.S.

Still trying to determine with whom Qatar Media and Imagina US (MEDIAPRO) have met at Comcast, NBC Sports Group, and Telemundo. That is a critical piece to the puzzle.