One way for the Emir, Sheik Al-Thani, to "GodFather" Comcast right back: Hello, Mr. Immelt, I have a check for you to take the 49% of NBCU held by GE. Will you take $16 billion? How does Comcast like THAT? Two can play "GodFather".
so... step one is let's trade secondary epl content for secondary big east content... step two is... sixteen billion? why were we even fuxxing around with everton and san diego state?
By now, one should have a picture of which media company Qatar Media has clearly set in its crosshairs. (Hint: NOT Disney/ESPN.) Qatar Media's play so far is bolder, more aggressive, and more provocative than the last "foreign invader" who turned the establishment upside down. Sheik Al-Thani appears to have sensed "weakness" in this hated media mogul, and the sheik is going for the kill.
Hey Ollie, the SDSU or Boise State games you talk about start at 10 pm Eastern, so there is competition for them on other networks. How did CBS College Sports do with those 10 pm Eastern SDSU home games last fall? Certainly not well enough to get them off of anybody's sports tier. The Mountain? That dies in 45 minutes. Admit it. You have spun a ridiculous tale here, and sadly for you, there are people here who see through your nonsense. Good luck with that TV programming gig at beIN sports. Of course, once they realize you have set up sock puppet twitter and word press accounts using their corporate identity, getting a job with them will be the least of your concerns.
I haven't run across such far out delusional stuff since I stopped drinking and smoking weed and popping pills... 25 freaking years ago. I don't recall Oliver being this batshit crazy on rec.sport.soccer back in the 90s. Is it just the distance in time, or a fondness for the days when rss gave us some of the best football conversations of the era?
How many times must all of us point out the insanity of this Big East nonsense. Is he just trolling us on his, or has he taken too many pulls from:
i still don't see how an equitable trade of secondary epl and big east content should lead to the inclusion of aj on extended basic. i mean, if the trade was equitable, why does it change the balance of power? as for the 49% of nbcu owned by ge... when we start to discuss that, we're switching from programming to finance, which requires another discussion. qatar media would take a financial interest in nbcu, but not any management partnership of any shape or form. nor does qm owning 49% open the possibility of a takeover. financial structure aside, qm as a foreign entity legally is prevented from owning a network. so while it's fun to play with other people's money (especially when they have so much of it), it's hard to see what qm would accomplish with 49% of nbcu, other than a financial interest. seems to me there's a simple reason ge wants to sell its stake. they're not interested in the next stage of the nbc adventure, which under comcast promises lots of changes. ge never was into that. they simply had cash to invest. iow, that 49% never represented anything but a financial stake, with no other purpose behind it. qm could step in for ge, but it's not even clear why that ought to make a difference to comcast. there's a reason, after all, why comcast didn't bother with that 49% in the first place. they can execute equally no matter who holds that remaining financial interest. the way nbcu is set up, the holder of the 49% stake has to align with comcast, and not the other way around. and if ge can't find a taker, comcast can get their stake at a very reasonable price.
Umm ... they didn't exist when the World Cup rights were bid on. Even if they did they don't have the footprint to carry such a big event. Check the ratings. Just using ESPN2 as the example, EPL games did better than La Liga games.
I am in contact with key people in Miami. Also attempting to contact key people in Doha. Please be patient. Start-ups are frantic, with lots of parts moving. A lot can change overnight. We are seeing the beginning of the biggest media business story in the 21st century so far. No doubt in my mind now that Qatar Media is talking to Comcast at the highest level. Qatar Media and Comcast are aligned in one aspect: they both want to cut NewsCorp down to size, and they have the resources to do it. This story is real. EPL is on deck. This one is a foregone conclusion. Can't see FOX-ESPN-Univision come up with $300 million. Big East Conference is coming up for bid in November: NBC Sports Group vs FOX Sports Media Group (with ESPN, Inc. likely stepping aside.) Big payday for Boise State, San Diego State, Central Florida, etc. College Football Championship 4-team event starting 2014 is on the radar. The likes of Delany, Scott, Slive, Bowlsby, Swofford, and Tagliabue are all aware of Qatar Media. Possible collaboration in news also. Can you say "AJNBC"? I know you can. == A lot of people are moving very quickly to align themselves. We already know about Phil Schoen. I know of another very high profile sports TV talent who is moving very quickly. She should be able to obtain direct access to Nasser and Youssef at Roland Garros this weekend given her tennis background.
And people that have that passion will find a way to get the game. That's why the ratings for the EPL on ESPN, a channel in 2.5x the homes, did only marginally better than FSC. The people who are die hards will find their way to the content. the cost is as high as the demand justifies. Fact is the EPL has more demand than La Liga overall and among non hispanics, but not as much with hispanics alone. It's much easier to sell the league to English speakers when the stars of the league can speak English. I remember wondering how much bigger guys like Zidane and especially Ronaldinho could have gotten if they'd been able to sell themselves to America especially around the 2006 World Cup when Ronaldinho was white hot. And the same thing with Messi. He's having some charity game in Miami and the ads they're running have him promoting the game on FSC in Spanish with subtitles.Really? La Liga will never have the upside that the EPL has because the EPL can and will try to market themselves. The Spanish speaking audience as a whole like soccer more, but the demographic that advertisers and by extension TV networks want is the young, malleable, discretionary spending males who like to watch Manchester United more than Malaga. GolTV could only do so much with what they had.
Not no mo it ain't ... and I knew that thing would never happen. Too many greedy interests in college football.
Do you think beIN sports would be interested in USMNT qualifiers? Espescially the away qualifiers? With US vs Guatemala on pay-per-view. I would think maybe their P/L statement for an event wouldn't mirror ESPN or NBC Sports?
Get the distribution first. That's the highest priority. In my opinion, the acquisition guy in Doha needs to stop buying US media rights to minor products and let the senior management team in Miami take over once the team is in place. Buying products without regard to schedule grid balance or distribution is putting the cart before the horse, in my opinion. EPL should be the only one on deck right now. That one determines whether beIN Sports (USA English) will have any chance of reaching 40 million households, never mind 80 million. -- Nasser and Youssef are in Paris this weekend, likely at Roland Garros to enjoy the tennis action after beIN Sport 1 launched in France at 1900 CET (1pm New York) on Friday (about 36 minutes ago.) By chance, Candy Reid is also in Paris with her family. Check out this video from a charity soccer match between the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and a group of professional tennis players on March 23, 2011. Candy played a few minutes with the tennis pros (in yellow): http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/sports/2011/03/24/reid.fl.japan.soccer.charity.cnn Candy's blog diary entry from that particular assignment: http://worldsport.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/25/candy-reids-miami-open-diary/
More video from the charity match from an episode of ATP World Tour Uncovered. Candy Reid is the blonde playing for the team of tennis players in yellow and black.
No one will ever argue that the EPL will always be a top product here in the United States, granted is a good league but in my opinion that is not the main reason why.
No, you are wrong. The average EPL viewership on FSC was 185,000 compared to 321,000 on ESPN2. So, viewership is 75% higher on ESPN2. 75% is not marginal in any business I am aware of. Moreover, if you consider the timeslots ESPN2 has, the pre-dawn Saturday morning and Monday afternoon matches, and compare them to the cherry timeslots that FSC has, 12:30pm Saturday and 11:00am Sunday, you could quickly conclude that ESPN2 would outdraw FSC on an apples to apples basis (same timeslot / same household coverage). So I will say again, if I am the Premier League, I would be negotiating right now to get as many matches as possible on ESPN/ESPN2, in the best timeslots, because that is the path forward to growing the Premier League brand in the US. And I would sacrifice $1-2m/club/season to do that.
Really? Saturday: 7:30am ET beIN Sports (?) vs ESPN2 (100M) 10am ET beIN Sports (?) vs FOX Soccer (41M), NBC Sports Network (80M) vs FOX Deportes (18M), CNBC (90M) vs FOX Soccer Plus (1M) 12:30pm ET beIN Sports (?) vs FOX Soccer (41M) Sunday 8:30am ET beIN Sports (?) vs FOX Soccer (41M) or FOX Soccer Plus (1M) 11am ET beIN Sports (?) vs FOX Soccer (41M) Monday 3pm ET beIN Sports (?) vs FOX Soccer (41M) We just don't know enough yet how many households (?) represents. If Comcast were willing to step up and put the channel on digital basic, (?) would be around 15 Million households minimum Keep in mind that any "big" match on Saturday 7:45am ET, Sunday 8:30am ET, Sunday 11am ET, or Monday 3pm ET will be moved from beIN Sports to NBC Sports Network via time buy (80M). No big matches usually on Saturdays 12:30pm ET.
Ohhhhhhh, there was batshit. The MFL team in Los Angeles, the NASCAR Channel, Mexico 7-0 USA and "Mutant League Soccer" were just the DVD extras.
and this is the reason why bein sport would give epl 300 million give me a break they would not get more then 200 million and why would univision buy epl rights. there were a cl magazine in mexico when they had cl trophy there there were more la liga and serie a shirts there then epl and chicarito is playing in man u. this kind of propaganda ticks me of when they make epl like nfl or baseball or even hockey. soccer is a niche sport in usa and epl is also. meaningles friendlies get bigger ratings then 4-5 epl games combined
Remember that MLS was a mess back then. Miami Fusion? Lost the "contraction cup" in San Jose in 2001. I was in the press box for that game, writing for Gary Davidson for "$1" in exchange for getting a one-game press pass. Tampa Bay Mutiny? Contracted after 2001. MLS survived the first near-death experience because of one person: Phil Anschutz. Don't forget that.