Soccer Rights in North America

(This came out on October 20th)

MILAN - MP & Silva was selected unanimously by Serie A's 20 clubs Monday to distribute Serie A TV rights internationally for another three seasons.

The London-and Singapore-based company will pay 172 million euros ($219 million) for the first year of the deal, 185 million euros ($236 million) for the second year and 200 million euros ($255 million) for the final year.
The other two offers from IMG and B4 Capital were reportedly significantly lower.

It took only 40 minutes of a Serie A assembly to select the winning deal, which marks a big increase from the average annual fee of 117 million euros (nearly $150 million) for the previous contract with MP & Silva.

Still, it is still nowhere close to the more than 800 million euros ($1 billion) that the English Premier League makes from foreign rights per season. But it does close the gap on the Spanish league's estimated 177 million euro ($225 million) deal.

Weighed down by fan violence, racism and crumbling stadiums, Serie A makes most of its money from domestic TV rights, earning an estimated 857 million euros (more than $1 billion) per season from Rupert Murdoch-controlled Sky and Silvio Berlusconi-controlled Mediaset.

"We're making a considerable investment that is counterintuitive considering the crisis of Italian football," MP & Silva president Riccardo Silva said. "We are confident both in our commercial and distribution capacities in 200 countries and in the ability of Italian football to bounce back competitively."

The deal must be approved by Italy's antitrust agency within 45 days.


So nothing has changed at the core of the deal for the next 3 years (MP & Silva have owned these rights since 2004). This does not mean its automatic that beIN will make a deal with MP & Silva but I would say it is extremely likely as the two companies have collaborated on new channels in Asia and seem in good relations. No word yet on Spanish or French rights.

Keep in mind, however, that there were rumblings in July of 2013 that MP&Silva were going to launch their very own channel to show Serie A in the US and Canada (in Italian/all HD). They had a promo video running on YouTube (which has since disappeared). It looked incredible. Basically a whole channel dedicated to Serie A. But this was announced in the midst of negotiating a new deal with RAI Int'l and speculation was it was just a negotiating tactic for MP&Silva. I believe its just a matter of time before beIN announces a 3-year extension to the deal for Serie A.

SA
www.soccertvblog.com

 

If any of these leagues want to get popular they need to get OFF of BeIn Sports. Likely won't happen because of all of their Arab money but there are many other channel that would be interested and are available on regular cable.

 

Bump.

So, of the top 5 european leagues, only bundesliga is locked after the next season with bein portfolio expiring now? Right?

Any word on new deals? I remember when people on this board used to have sources

 

Tell me about it Lovac, this forum used to be crazy. I'm waiting to hear on the La Liga rights for next year. Bein has done a nice job with La Liga (to the detriment of the other leagues they carry, unfortunately), but I think that any of the other big networks (ESPN, Fox, Univision) would give the Spanish league much more exposure in the states.

 

Time machine back to 2013:

"I have to seriously ask here, how much more exposure would NBC give the Premier League? How has the Premier League suffered under Fox Soccer Channel?"

 

1. What about comparing a network that has to fill 6 all-sports channels with content to a network that only has to fill 1?
2. And what of Fox? Even if you could say that ESPN didn't need more weekend morning/afternoon content (which I would disagree with, they need more Sunday afternoon programming, especially after losing NASCAR), Fox has 5 all-sports channels to fill without anything close to ESPN's rights inventory.

 

Fox Deportes. Fox College Sports.

I would strongly disagree that the EPL is a "popular league nearly top down". There is a huge drop-off in popularity after ManU, ManCity, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.

 

Even low level English clubs have more name recognition in the US than any Spanish team not named Barca or Real Madrid.....take the one in your user name for example

 

There are three Fox College Sports channels (Atlantic, Central, and Pacific), so that makes seven channels, but I hope Fox College Sports doesn't show La Liga because it doesn't fit the channel name. Just like BeIN, Fox College Sports probably requires a premium or Sports package to get.

 

Amongst English speakers, that's mostly true. What about Spanish speakers?

 

Whoa, I think the goal posts are moving here. I have never argued that La Liga is as popular as the EPL among English-speakers. My argument has been that NBC, Fox and ESPN should be (I don't claim any insider knowledge) interested in La Liga rights when they come up for bid. My argument is based on the following facts:

1. Barcelona and Real Madrid are the most popular European clubs in the United States (overall) and at least as popular as the EPL Big 5 among English-speakers.
2. La Liga is the most popular European soccer league among Spanish-speakers (and all 3 networks have Spanish-language channels that have programming slots to fill).
3. All 3 networks need more weekend morning/afternoon live sports content (to varying degrees).

 

The three FCS channels are SD-only (as far as I know) and typically require a Sports Package. They're akin to ESPNU, in the fact that they don't show pro sports. I don't think FCS even had games during matchday 38 of EPL seasons when Fox had every game. IIRC, those games were on FOX, FSC, Speed, Fuel, Fox Soccer Plus, two games online-exclusive, and I forget the three other channels.


People are forgetting that Fox *could* use FX and FXX if need be.

 

Here's the schedule for the last EPL games of 2012-2013:

A fan like me without FS+ could watch 3 games live and 3 delayed.

 

If you're a fan of non-Champs League level clubs, it's really streaming that you should be looking out for in future TV deals. Nine weeks out of ten, networks will be putting matches online and not on whatever niche channels they might control. Whoever gets La Liga will be putting matches like Elche-Levante on their streaming service. So in terms of easy, ready access to good streams, in my opinion ESPN & NBC > beIN > FOX (separate subscription).

 

I don't remember who it was that brought this up or in what thread but Yahoo is going to be the first Web stream to exclusively broadcast an NFL Nationally televised game.

How that shapes the sports/soccer tv world remains to be seen, but it is interesting.

I kinda like the Youtube route myself. Watching Argentina soccer recently and the Copa America in 2011 was not that bad of an experience.

 

YouTube's cricket streaming for Willow is perhaps the best quality I've ever seen (online). The low end user total probably helps though

 

Argentine soccer looks terrible (perhaps an overstatement but definitely not broadcast quality) on YouTube on a big screen TV. NGSN is much better. Although perhaps this problem is on the argentine broadcaster's end and not YouTube.

Upon further reflection, maybe La Liga should sell the U.S. English and Spanish rights separately. Ratings would soar on Univision as I'm sure they would play all (or almost all) Real Madrid and Barcelona over the air and they would have coverage of all the other games as well at least on UDN or Galavision. La Liga is immensely popular among Latin Americans not only because of the standard of play and Real Madrid/Barcelona but about 10 Mexicans, 35 argentines etc play in La Liga. There are probably 75-100 Latin Americans to follow.

As far as English, maybe Fox and ESPN share the rights and between those 4 channels (ESPN/espn2 fs1/fs2 and maybe very occasionally on a lesser channel) they find a way to broadcast Madrid/Barcelona (even during college football/basketball season) with the rest of the games online (or sap on Univision).

These companies have a history of collaborating in the past (current MLS deal -- and as far as fox and ESPN with usnt and UEFA rights and in the past with the premier league.)

But yeah it will probably end up on BeIN again.

 

It looks okay on my television. But I connect my laptop directly with an HDMI wire.