The Premier League, the world’s most- watched domestic soccer championship, expects to sell the first of its new overseas broadcast contracts by August, an official said.
England’s top division, which says it has a cumulative global television audience of 4.77 billion, may increase overseas revenue, Phil Lines, the league’s head of international broadcasting, said in an interview. That’s even though the negotiations are taking place during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
“At a time of economic downturn, the Premier League product has remained very strong, probably stronger than ever,” said Lines, who will present proposals for the overseas sales to the 20-team championship’s shareholders at an annual meeting tomorrow. “In many markets we are a ‘must-have’ right. In those markets I expect us to be very well received.”
The league topped its record domestic-rights revenue in February when the U.K.’s biggest pay-television provider, British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc, and Setanta Sports Ltd. agreed to pay 1.782 billion pounds ($2.93 billion) for a three- season contract starting in August 2010. It generated 625 million pounds when it sold the overseas rights for 2007-10.
Asia Following
The biggest gains are expected to be made in Asia, where English soccer is followed by millions and where the league’s top two teams, Manchester United and Liverpool, will tour in July.
“The further we go east the more ‘must have’ we become,” Lines said. The Middle East rights will be the first to be sold, with buyers likely to have been found before the start of the next Premier League season on Aug. 15, he added.
David Gill, chief executive officer of Manchester United, which claimed its third straight Premier League crown last month, expressed frustration at the league’s decision to sell rights to pay-broadcaster WinTV in China, the world’s most populous nation, the last time the sales took place.
The move led to the audience for English soccer in China plunging from 30 million a game to about 20,000, according to the Guardian newspaper. Chinese viewers have switched to watching Italian and Spanish soccer because both are available for free.
Ronaldo, Torres
Lines said his priority is to maximize the league’s income, paving the way for English clubs to spend millions on attracting the world’s best talent, such as world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United, Liverpool’s Fernando Torres and Chelsea’s Didier Drogba.
Yet, the Premier League will probably offer at least one game a week free to viewers in China.
“One way or another, you can be pretty sure there will be some free-to-air exposure,” Lines said.
(Source: Bloomberg)
