Sky get 3 packages

[Lisa]

Sky nets half of live football rights packages

Julia Day
Friday April 28, 2006


Premiership football: BSkyB will almost certainly try to gain two more packages in the second round. Photograph: Getty

The Premier League has awarded three of its six live TV rights packages to BSkyB, and will hold a second round of bidding for the remaining three bundles of matches.
The deal gives BSkyB 69 live matches per season for three years from 2007-08, with the league having created six packages of 23 games each.

"Following the submission of bids by interested parties, the FA Premier League is in a position to announce that it has awarded three out of the six packages to live rights to BSkyB. We will be proceeding to a second round of bidding for the remaining three packages in due course," said a spokesman for the league.


Article continues

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"There will be no further comment on this from the Premier League until the conclusion of the second round of bidding. Bidders are also bound by similar confidentiality."
The league would not confirm which three of the six packages BSkyB has won.

BSkyB will almost certainly try to gain two more packages - the maximum it is legally allowed to win - in the second round of bidding. The closing dates for the new round of bids is expected to be at the end of next week or the beginning of the week after.

Live Premiership coverage is crucial to the company's success - the satellite broadcaster has built its reputation and subscriber base on the football rights it has owned since 1992.

But its failure to win five out of the six packages on offer at the first attempt has hit the company's share price, which fell by 2.64% to 516.50p immediately after the Premier League's announcement at around 10.20am.

Sir Richard Branson's NTL is also understood to have lodged sizeable bids for at least half of the live rights packages.

Irish broadcaster Setanta, Channel 4 and Channel Five are hoping to get their hands on at least one packag, while Disney-owned ESPN, BT and France Telecom have also registered an interest.

The last Premier League media rights deal, in 2003, raised £1.6bn - taking overseas rights, highlights and mobile contracts into account. The high level of competition for the new rights is expected to net the Premier League more than £2bn.

[Momo Sissoko]

Good news. Hopefully The Beeb and ItV pick up two. The other will probably PPV.

[real red]

As Paul said the other week, it will be those watching that suffer, because you will have to pay a lot more to watch everything that's available.

[Momo Sissoko]

Originally Posted by real red

As Paul said the other week, it will be those watching that suffer, because you will have to pay a lot more to watch everything that's available.

Depends. If the BBC and ITV get them we won't. The other is likely to be a PPV who will go through Sky, so it will no different to what we've got now with Prem Plus.

[real red]

Originally Posted by Momo Sissoko

Depends. If the BBC and ITV get them we won't. The other is likely to be a PPV who will go through Sky, so it will no different to what we've got now with Prem Plus.

Setanta already show Scottish 'football' on their channels, and occasionally show some pre-season or wafer cup games if they can get the rights, and they always charge seperately. So you might still be able to get a PPV season ticket off them, but not as part of the Sky Prem Plus season ticket.

And does having Tyldesley commentating on Premiership matches with McCoist and Townsend not count as a cost?

[Lisa]

I wonder if Sky will reduce their prices for their Sports package, I very much doubt it. I only buy the sports packages for the football, I don't watch any other sport, such as cricket. They should offer a football only subscription at a lower cost. They could do a season ticket like they do with Prem Plus.

[bri]

I guess if NTL or any of the other Satalite companies win any of the others it'll be more in the pocket for the consumer.

[Momo Sissoko]

Package A = 23 'first choice' games, 4PM Sundays.

Package B = 23 'second choice' games, 1.30PM Sundays.

Package C = 23 'third choice' games, 8PM Mondays.

Package D = 8 'second choice'; 15 'fourth choice', 5:15PM Saturdays.

Package E = 5 'first choice'; 9 'third choice'; 9 'fourth choice', 12:45PM Saturdays

Package F = 10 'first choice'; 7 'second choice'; 6 'third choice', Bank Holidays, 4PM Sundays, 12:35PM Saturdays.

[aws]

Sky won't reduce their charges - they're having to pay more in the bidding.They'll still have Prem plus for some of their games.

It just means the consumer will have to fork out an extra payment to ntl or setanta.

[Momo Sissoko]

Could be the end for 3 oclock kick off's.

[bri]

ITV could bid for the PPV games and do what sky do already. I'm not sure the BBC could do that though.

As for NTL, the only logical thing to do would be then to transmit a programme through the sky serive

[The Bugged Out]

i reckon sky will just resubmit large bids and get 2 of the 3 packeages left.

i bet they got a shock though when their first bids didnt succeed and it had to go to a second round. should give a clubs even more spending power

[rebel23]

sky will just put up the price of the subscription cost for sky sports etc. I doubt very much enough people even buy PPV games or "season tickets" to even cover the cost of what they pay for the rights, the fact that they're going to have to pay more due to a competitive bidding process is bad news for sky customers as the costs will just get passed on, corrupt system imho

[Lisa]

Whatever happens just means we will have to fork out more money. I am not that bothered about the Monday games, a lot of them are totally crap as all the best teams are playing in Europe. I can remember when they used to show Wimbledon nearly every Monday night, I just managed to stay awake for the first hour.

[Thants]

Originally Posted by Lisa

Whatever happens just means we will have to fork out more money. I am not that bothered about the Monday games, a lot of them are totally crap as all the best teams are playing in Europe. I can remember when they used to show Wimbledon nearly every Monday night, I just managed to stay awake for the first hour.

Now its usually Bolton, funny that.

[Thants]

Originally Posted by real red

And does having Tyldesley commentating on Premiership matches with McCoist and Townsend not count as a cost?

[Paul]

No terrestrial broadcaster will get these unless they are going to launch a PPV channel/website. I think Sky will win all six bids and then hand back the least valuable (as the rules entitle them to do). In short, the fans are getting fucking fleeced. Again.

This is shit. Some fucking muppet in Brussels thinks this is good for the consumer? Fucking arsewipes.

[chrisbonnie]

surely Sky must have some kind of insider trading, they MUST know what prices the other companies are putting in, if not, then NTL or whoever should just throw out a crazy figure, either way they`ll make a fucking packet

[Paul]

Originally Posted by chrisbonnie

surely Sky must have some kind of insider trading, they MUST know what prices the other companies are putting in, if not, then NTL or whoever should just throw out a crazy figure, either way they`ll make a fucking packet

Not necessarily. They don't want to over-pay as there'll be a point at which they believe it'll be difficult to recoup their money. The process is overseen by an independent body appointed by the EC (although paid by the PL) and there are reserve prices for each package.

[Momo Sissoko]

Just been on SSN that Sky have once again got the majority of packages - four in all, and will show 92 games. And two have gone to Setana sports, who also use the SKY platform. They've got them all basically.

Good news for us with Sky then...

[aws]

We'll have to pay twice over though because Setanta will be pay for view.

[Momo Sissoko]

Originally Posted by aws

We'll have to pay twice over though because Setanta will be pay for view.

It won't be that different to what we're paying with Sky now.

Sky will show 92 games just on Sky Sports. They are not having any PPV channels.

Setana have the C and D packages, which is 31 games - Monday nights 8pm KO and Saturdays 17.15 KO. I'm sure they'll offer some kind of package like the Prem Plus one.