Why would La Liga's price for the US/Canada be just a few million euros less than that of England, if it is as unpopular as you say it is? And if nobody is bidding that high, are they going to reject $9 million, ask $15 million, and end up getting 0? Methinks no. Because you basically said each channel that would attempt a purchase can't afford it. So who can? And if you don't have the previous year's price for GolTV then you can't arbitrarily come up with $15 million. Find it and you'll have a comparison. And FWIW, GolTV is part of DishNetwork's Latino package, which costs an extra $10 a month. I can't speak for DirecTV, but $10/mo works out to $120/year PER HOUSEHOLD. To come up with $10 million, you need just 83,333 households to pay that. GolTV reaches 30 million households in the United States with 8 million subscribers. For matches such as El Clasico, it has averaged ratings of 1.6 to 2.0, which is 1.74 million to 2.2 million viewers for that game alone.
No. GolTV only gets a few cents a month from each subscriber. Somewhere between 10 and 12 cents a month would be about right. (FOX Soccer Channel, which has been around longer than GolTV, gets about 20 cents a month.) No. Your math is wrong. GolTV U.S. had 8 million subscribers during the upfront selling season. A 1.6% channel rating on GolTV only equates to an 0.116% broadcast equivalent rating (there are 110 U.S. households that receive any form of TV), or 128,000 households, for a big game such as the Barca vs Real Madrid "clasico". ESPN2 got similar broadcast equivalent ratings when it aired the Barca-Real Madrid "clasicos" via tape-delay on Monday afternoons in the late 1990's. -- If you make the aggressive assumption that there is 1 targeted viewer, a male between 18 and 49, in each household that watches the "clasico", and if you price a 30-second ad aggressively at $20 per 1000 viewers, a 30-second ad during the "clasico" is worth: 128,000 households x 1 targeted viewer/household x $20/1000 viewers = $2560 per 30-second spot. In practice, a 30-second spot during the "clasico" is worth less than that. You need to do more math to convince yourself that there is no way GolTV or ESPN Deportes can make even an $6-8 million/season U.S. TV rights fee for La Liga to work economically.
From the link I provided: *There are an estimated 110.2 million television households in the USA. A single ratings point represents 1%, or 1,102,000 households for the 2005-06 season. 1 ratings point = 1% = 1.1 million households 1.6 ratings points = 1.6% = 1.76 million households. But again, if La Liga is that unpopular in North America, why would it be priced at $12 million? I've seen no proof or claims that it the rights are on par with those sold to the UK.
For the last time, your math is wrong. GolTV gets a 1.6% CHANNEL RATING for "el clasico", not a 1.6% broadcst equivalent rating. 1 BROADCAST EQUIVALENT RATING point = 1.1 million households. 1 GolTV Channel rating point = ONLY about 80,000 households at the time of the upfront presentation. A "channel rating" is based on the percentage of PAID SUBSCRIBERS who tune in, not based on the percentage of TOTAL TV HOUSEHOLDS in the country. I have been in this business for 11 years and I do know what I am talking about. -- La Liga should be asking at least $10 million a year for the U.S. and Canadian TV rights. That's what La Liga and its marketing agent should be doing. That doesn't mean that a $10 million a year rights fee will make economic sense for either GolTV or ESPN Deportes. I do expect "some company" in the U.S. to eventually pay close to what La Liga is asking. However, I don't believe at this point in time that the "company" will be GolTV or ESPN if a deal were to close within the next week or two at a rights fee greater than $10 million a year.
I received the following email from GOLTV: "Thank you for contacting GOLTV. We will start the broadcast of the Spanish League on August 26 Sincerely, Pablo Salla" If after so many people call GOLTV regarding LA LIGA, and the response from GOLTV was always afirmative, and for any reason it is not accurate, the call center will be busy......
Yeah thats what they "should" be doing, but if no company can make that bid for an unpopular league (like you said) then they are wasting their time. Again what was the price last year?
The previous TV deal for La Liga in the US and Canada should have been around $2 million a year, give or take. GolTV Inc., Cablevision (Rainbow Media/Voom/WorldSport HD), and Insight Sports Limited (GolTV Canada) split the cost of the last deal. The asking price for the new La Liga TV deal in the US and Canada, when you extrapolate the numbers from the new La Liga TV deals already done in the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, should be in the low 8 figures, i.e. on the order of $10-12 million, when you consider that GolTV US and GolTV Canada now have about 9-10 million subscribers combined. Ditto for Latin America and Caribbean, where ESPN Latin America (and its sister networks ESPN Dos, ESPN Brasil, and ESPN Mas) should now have over 12 million legal subscribers, if not closer to 15 million.
I dont think its an equal comparison for the cost of La Liga in the US/Canada to equal that of the UK. And now that the Premiership is free to FSC viewers, neither GolTV nor anyone else has the incentive to overpay for a secondary league... that said, I doubt they would offer more than $5mil.
I do agree with your the dollar amount. Even $5 million a year for the US and Canadian TV rights to La Liga seems too high to me. $3 million is definitely workable for GolTV. $5 million is very iffy. $8 million is probably unworkable. $10-12 million would be insane. I don't think ESPN International is serious about getting La Liga for ESPN Deportes at this point given how high the asking price for the rights fee is. The existence of one particular competitor, flush with tens of millions of dollars in venture capital money, does add intrigue to the "poker game" that is the soccer TV rights business in the U.S. and Canada markets.
Goltv paid 2 million a year for the last 3 years, so 6 million. The 10 or 11 million they are asking now is for the next 3 years, so it will cost around 3,5 million. The increase is 1,5 a year, not a big jump. Saying the one season the cost is 2 million and the next 10, 11 or 12 million is not being accurate.
No. The asking price for US and Canadian video rights to La Liga now should be around $10-12 million a year, or $30-35 million for the 3-year cycle. That's what I meant by "EPL Money". I just don't believe GolTV will put itself in a financial hole by paying that much for La Liga in the U.S. or Canada. Ditto ESPN Deportes.
They really need to launch a sister channel if they want to get the most out of their deal. One week I get to watch Real play, the next I'm stuck watching Villareal play. Or even worse, Juventus!
GolTV got the deal done for La Liga in the US and Canada. I just hope that GolTV knows what it is doing by spending a fortune for the product.
Sweet! I love the Premiership, but La Liga is the most competitive, from top to bottom, of the major European leagues.
Who cares? Almost no one gets that channel anyway. But to answer your question, yes, CL will be its main European football property this season.
To replace Dutch Football, ESPN Deportes will have the same-day re-air of one Mexican League match each Saturday from Azteca America.
Mexican League... which is on Univision, Galavision, FSC... zzzz DishNetwork here seriously has 4-5 channels that air the Mexican league