Premier League set for international rights cash bonanza 24/03/2010 |
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The Premier League's sale of its overseas broadcast rights for 2010-13 will raise about £1.4bn – more than double the previous level of £625m, it has been claimed.
The Independent newspaper reports that the increase has been fuelled by intense bidding wars in key markets, mainly between pay-TV rivals in Asia.
With just two deals left to be concluded – in Albania and Russia – the League is apparently assured of raising each club's average annual income from overseas rights from £10m to £23m per season from this summer.
The extra cash will not necessarily be split evenly between clubs, however, according to the paper.
It says that the Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), which is controlled by the royal family of which Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour is a part, has won the rights for Premier League matches across the Middle East and North Africa from the incumbent holder, Showtime Arabia.
Local sources claim Showtime paid about £80m last time and that ADMC ended up paying more than £200m for 2010-13.
In Singapore, the rights are currently held by pay-TV operator StarHub, which paid an estimated £67m for 2007-10. Its fiercest commercial rival, SingTel, has reportedly paid £200m for 2010-13.
In Hong Kong, the Now TV station currently has the rights (having paid about £115m last time) but has lost them to i-Cable, which is understood to have paid close to £150m.
The Independent reports that the Premier League will retain the same partners for 2010-13 in some regions: Fox and Setanta will continue to be the main carriers of the Premier League across North America and the Caribbean, as will Fox Latin in South America, and ESPN Star across 18 major Asian countries, including India.
Canal+ retains rights in France and Poland (in a deal worth about £60m), but a shake-up in Scandinavia has seen Canal+ lose the rights there to intermediary Medge Consulting. Medge has paid £111m for the rights in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and will sell them on to individual broadcasters at a healthy mark-up.
The Premier League's live domestic rights for 2010-13 raised £1.782bn when sold last summer.
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