Guardian: ESPN and Setanta to team up against FSC for US PL Rights

In my opinion, the only reasons La Liga is getting around $10 million/year in video rights fee in the U.S. market are because 1) GolTV needs La Liga in order to keep its place in English-language "sports packs" on cable and satellite TV systems (without La Liga, GolTV will be relegated exclusively to the Spanish-language packages), and 2) FOX Sports International (FSI) knows that GolTV needs La Liga so FSI will bid against GolTV in order to force GolTV to pay more than what La Liga is worth intrinsically.

In the last contract cycle, GolTV fired a salvo across the bow of FSI when GolTV bought the rights to Arsenal TV and Liverpool TV. FSI then allegedly ganged up with Setanta to jack up the rights fee for La Liga (to around $10 million), forcing GolTV to match the bid in order to keep the product. Of course, GolTV allegedly turned around and bid $19 milliion/year for EPL, forcing FSI/Setanta to match that bid in order for FSI/Setanta to retain EPL.

In other words, GolTV and FSI/Setanta screwed each other in the last bidding cycle and neither side made money.

This time around, GolTV is wisely not making any noise regarding EPL.

The one outfit that is making a lot of noise regarding EPL, namely ESPN, Inc., has access to a war chest, but has shown so far that it is NOT willing to lose money on EPL. Not even in the U.K. market.

 

The major reason why the Mexican League is scattered across 7 different channels in the U.S. is of course dinero.

Chivas Guadalajara started the whole merry-go-round when it took a big offer (allegedly in the neighborhood of $100 million/year) from NBC Universal/Telemundo and left the Univision Networks.

The whole Televisa-Univision feud escalated last September when Televisa yanked the U.S. TV rights to the 6 teams it does NOT own (Atlante, Atlas, Monterrey, Pumas, Tigres, Toluca) and moved them to Telemundo.

TV Azteca had sublicensed games to FOX Sports en Espanol and ESPN Deportes in the past while keeping the best games on Azteca America.

Now that the Univision Networks were down to 3 Televisa teams (Club America, Necaxa, San Luis) and had a serious issue with dearth of programming on Galavision (which could endanger cable TV carriage contracts), TV Azteca saw an opportunity and decided to sublicense some of the Friday night and weeknight matches to Univision's Galavision cable channel so that Azteca America won't have to pre-empt its prime time telenovelas.

The Mexican 1st division allegedly makes more money from U.S. TV rights fee than the Big East college basketball league (which collects $160 million/year from ESPN, Inc.)

 

GolTV no longer has the Colombian 1st Division (Dimayor).

The Brazilian National Championship and Paulista Championship package was purchased by GolTV from Globo as the replacement for the Colombian 1st Division.

The U.S. and Canadian video rights in English and Spanish for the Brazilian package has to be relatively cheap because no one wanted the package in the last contract cycle.

GolTV now has to decide whether it will continue to pay the big money for La Liga and keep its place on English-language sports packs on U.S. cable and satellite TV platforms, or risk losing English-language sports pack carriage (and lose 75% of its subscribers) if GolTV does not keep La Liga after the 2008-2009 season.

 

La Liga seems like something that was tailor made for ESPN Deportes to increase their viewership.

On a related note, why hasn't ESPN Deportes negotiated an English Language version of itself (for the things it has English Language rights for) that it can sell as a digital sports-tier channel a-la GolTV? or at least carry an English language SAP feed for some of its programs that aren't showing on another network (like Champions League or possibly La Liga)?

 

Well they still have the Uruguayan league.

 

I have been thinking for a month or so now that something has to be going on with ESPN. They seem to have more EPL flashes and highlights on SportsCenter and you regularly see Euro leagues' scores on "the bottom line" on the weekends. That NEVER happened even a few months ago.

 

Would rather see partnership between ESPN and FSC then could drop Setanta which costs me $15 a month. There is plenty of soccer to go around for those networks though!!!

 

Not necessarily Setanta USA related (yet) - but news of the parent network which could have an impact on televised soccer down the line...

Setanta reaches out for more live matches
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/10/setanta-tv-rights-premier-league-sky

 

I'd rather pay the subscription money for a good product. I'm afraid that an ESPN owned int'l network would show the Premier League and ignore the rest of the good programming on offer through Setanta (Championship, France, GAA, news, etc)

 

In Latin America, the Televisa/NewsCorp alliance (Sky Mexico, DirecTV Latin America) holds the exclusive video rights to La Liga. ESPN Latin America/ESPN Dos/ESPN Mas sublicenses the 3rd and 4th choice matches (no Real Madrid, no Barcelona) from the Televisa/NewsCorp alliance.

ESPN Asia Pacific Limited (EAP) holds exclusive video rights to La Liga in the South Pacific (for ESPN Australia, ESPN New Zealand, and ESPN South Pacific Islands services).

 

ESPN might be able to pick them up on the cheap. What does the Prem do if they go belly up?

 

Me too! I've been seeing these updates lately, never, ever seen those before on ESPN. They even had an EPL goal in their top ten plays last week.

I hope ESPN can secure something simply for the exposure it will bring to the states, but, I can't live without my FFF, so they better get them too, hmm, ESPNFF doesn't sound so catchy

 

ESPN has had Champions League goals in their Top 10 going back to 2004-05, and I've seen them do EPL highlights on a slow US sports night, but yes ... there is a ramping up of exposure.

 

ESPN Asia Pacific Limited (EAP) is the Hong Kong-based corporated entity that oversees the operation of ESPN Australia, ESPN New Zealand, and ESPN South Pacific Islands.

EAP is also the corporate entity that holds the equity stakes in J Sports in Japan (which is operated by Jupiter Sports Corporation, which is managed by the Sumitomo Group) and ESPN STAR Sports based in Singapore (which is managed by News Corporation Limited's STAR TV unit).

 

ESPN Asia has SportCentre locally produced in many different countries, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, etc. The programming also varies in different countries. A few of them carry the Premiership (e.g. Taiwan), while in HK, Singapore, China, etc., the Premiership has been snatched by other local ventures.

In the past, the only connection between ESPN Asia and ESPN USA were some American produced programming like Sunday/Monday Nite Football, college basketball, baseball, etc. It seems like a new venture ASN (All Sports Network) has snatched up a lot of American sports programming, including the NFL, NHL and college basketball.

Of course, ESPN USA, TSN (Canada), ESPN Latin America and ESPN PacRim still belong to one big family.

 

ESPN Asia Pacific Limited (EAP) is a Hong Kong-based corporate entity for tax management purposes. As you may already know, Hong Kong has a lower corporate tax rate than Australia or the U.S.

I am aware that the programming on ESPN Australia, ESPN New Zealand, and ESPN South Pacific Islands are produced mostly out of Bristol, Connecticut, USA.

I am aware of the career of Jason Dasey, who currently anchors SportsCenter Australia and SportsCenter South Africa from Bristol, Connecticut. Dasey anchored World Sport on CNN Sports Illustrated (which was shut down in May 2002) and CNN International in the U.S. before he moved to ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) in Singapore.

The "ESPN" branded channels run by ESS are corporate sister networks of FOX Sports. The "ESPN" and "SportsCenter" brands and the "ESPN" look are used by ESS under license.

 

I wonder why they'd license ESPN's brand instead of building their own.

 

quick google search brought up this ... as well as this thread

 

Not anymore.

ESPN's Bristol operations center now sends out TWO outbound feeds across the Pacific:

ESPN Australia HD, which is transmitted via fiber optic cable

ESPN Pacific Rim (SD), which is transmitted via satellite

--

ESPN Australia (SD) will eventually use the ESPN Australia HD feed instead of the ESPN Pacific Rim feed for base programming once Australian cable/satellite TV operators upgrade their equipment to 1) receive ESPN Australia HD, and 2) convert the ESPN Australia HD feed to SD.

ESPN New Zealand and ESPN South Pacific Islands use the ESPN Pacific Rim feed for base programming.

J Sports ESPN in Japan retransmit selected ESPN programming from the ESPN Pacific Rim feed.

ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) in Singapore retransmit selected ESPN programming from the ESPN Pacific Rim feed on ESPN-branded channels in Asia. In addition, ESS will take certain FOX Sports Net (FSN) programming from the U.S. and retransmit it on ESPN-branded channels in Asia operated by ESS, with the "ESPN" bug placed on the screen.

[FSN network programming is no longer transmitted with "FSN" bugs or the "FSN" graphic, and the announcers now say "You are watching (name of the program) on your regional sports network" instead of "You are watching (name of the program) on FSN."]

ESPN Asia Pacific Limited (EAP) is a corporate entity that was originally incorporated in Hong Kong in 1993 as "ESPN Asia Limited". EAP's physical presence in Hong Kong consists of a small office.

EAP is a corporate entity used for tax management.

For example, if another Australian channel were to license programming from ESPN International Syndication (which is now headquartered in Hammersmith/London), the deal would be done out of EAP in Hong Kong so that EAP would be taxed on the profits at a lower corporate tax rate than if the deal were done by a corporate entity in Australia, the U.S., or the United Kingdom.

Multinational corporations will set up corporate entities in "tax havens" to manage their corporate taxes.

For example, NewsCorp has corporate entities in over 50 countries and territories, including a number of "tax havens" (Netherlands Antillies is one example) to facilitate tax-efficient business transactions.

General Electric (GE) is of course the undisputed king of using corporate entities registered in "tax havens" for corporate tax management.

 

ESS-operated ESPN-branded channels in Asia retransmit selected U.S. college football (gridiron) and college basketball games off the ESPN Pacific Rim feed during weekday mornings to fill time.

I was able to watch the Maui Invitational pre-season college basketball tournament on ESPN Asia when I was in Macau on business in November 2007.