badmash
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<a class="postlink" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/9491026/ITV-in-talks-with-BT-to-show-Premier-League-games.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... games.html</a>
ITV could show live Premier League football matches for the first time in its history under a tie-up with BT, it can be revealed.
BT is in talks to allow the broadcaster to screen on a terresterial channel some of the 154 sought-after games that it secured for £738m, as well as to produce the coverage of the matches.
The agreement would allow BT to showcase a sample of the content it offers on its own pay-television service, BT Vision, and also to recoup a portion of its outlay on the high profile matches.
Marc Watson, BT Vision’s chief executive, said earlier this year that it wanted to use the live TV rights as a “calling card” with which to sell other products. “This is about creating the opportunity to build more customer relationships,” he said days after the deal was clinched in June.
BT made a surprise entry into the market for live Premier League football rights - dominated until now by BSkyB - when it struck a deal for 38 matches a season for three years from 2013. Analysts and investors lambasted the company for taking such a big bet on the rights, but it has since emerged that BT had been after an even bigger share of the Premier League football games.
BT lodged bids for all seven of the “packages” in which Premier League rights are auctioned, although it would not have been allowed more than five for competition reasons. In the end, BT won two Premier League packages, handing it first pick of 18 matches.
“They seriously intended to get two thirds of the matches which would have been devastating to BSkyB,” said a source.
Even at this level, it poses a serious threat to BSkyB. The pay-TV broadcaster, which is 39pc owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, has built its business on top-tier football rights, and effectively created the Premier League in the early nineties by ploughing huge sums into securing key matches.
Its absolute stranglehold on the rights was loosened in the latest auction, and it was forced to pay about 40pc more than in previous years to retain the lion’s share of Premier League matches. BSkyB paid £2.28bn, or £760m a year, to show 116 matches over the three years, more than even its most senior managers had expected. The company lost more than £500m in value the next day of trading, as analysts cut their forecasts for its performance in 2014/15.
By acting in concert, ITV and BT will be much better placed to mount a serious challenge to BSkyB, one of their fiercest competitors. ITV wrangles with BSkyB for viewers and advertisers, while BT regularly loses broadband and telephone customers to the pay-TV company because they sign up for its bundled deals. Neither company has the werewithal to tackle BSkyB single-handed but together they could make a serious dent.
It can also be diclosed that BT is in talks with ITV and various other companies to produce its live football coverage and help it launch a dedicated channel. It is about to send out tender documents to the television company, which has a large in-house production business and experience of producing sports coverage for international broadcasters such as Al Jazeera. ITV is understood to be keen to pitch for the contract, whose value is estimated at around £100m over the three years.
The tender document will also go to specialist sports production companies such as IMG Worldwide, All3Media’s subsidiary North One Television, and Sunset + Vine, part of the Welsh production group Tinnopolis, as well as a handful of other production firms without a particular reputation for sport.
BT declined to comment whilst an ITV spokesman denied that the broadcaster was talking to the company about taking Premier League rights.
ITV could show live Premier League football matches for the first time in its history under a tie-up with BT, it can be revealed.
BT is in talks to allow the broadcaster to screen on a terresterial channel some of the 154 sought-after games that it secured for £738m, as well as to produce the coverage of the matches.
The agreement would allow BT to showcase a sample of the content it offers on its own pay-television service, BT Vision, and also to recoup a portion of its outlay on the high profile matches.
Marc Watson, BT Vision’s chief executive, said earlier this year that it wanted to use the live TV rights as a “calling card” with which to sell other products. “This is about creating the opportunity to build more customer relationships,” he said days after the deal was clinched in June.
BT made a surprise entry into the market for live Premier League football rights - dominated until now by BSkyB - when it struck a deal for 38 matches a season for three years from 2013. Analysts and investors lambasted the company for taking such a big bet on the rights, but it has since emerged that BT had been after an even bigger share of the Premier League football games.
BT lodged bids for all seven of the “packages” in which Premier League rights are auctioned, although it would not have been allowed more than five for competition reasons. In the end, BT won two Premier League packages, handing it first pick of 18 matches.
“They seriously intended to get two thirds of the matches which would have been devastating to BSkyB,” said a source.
Even at this level, it poses a serious threat to BSkyB. The pay-TV broadcaster, which is 39pc owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, has built its business on top-tier football rights, and effectively created the Premier League in the early nineties by ploughing huge sums into securing key matches.
Its absolute stranglehold on the rights was loosened in the latest auction, and it was forced to pay about 40pc more than in previous years to retain the lion’s share of Premier League matches. BSkyB paid £2.28bn, or £760m a year, to show 116 matches over the three years, more than even its most senior managers had expected. The company lost more than £500m in value the next day of trading, as analysts cut their forecasts for its performance in 2014/15.
By acting in concert, ITV and BT will be much better placed to mount a serious challenge to BSkyB, one of their fiercest competitors. ITV wrangles with BSkyB for viewers and advertisers, while BT regularly loses broadband and telephone customers to the pay-TV company because they sign up for its bundled deals. Neither company has the werewithal to tackle BSkyB single-handed but together they could make a serious dent.
It can also be diclosed that BT is in talks with ITV and various other companies to produce its live football coverage and help it launch a dedicated channel. It is about to send out tender documents to the television company, which has a large in-house production business and experience of producing sports coverage for international broadcasters such as Al Jazeera. ITV is understood to be keen to pitch for the contract, whose value is estimated at around £100m over the three years.
The tender document will also go to specialist sports production companies such as IMG Worldwide, All3Media’s subsidiary North One Television, and Sunset + Vine, part of the Welsh production group Tinnopolis, as well as a handful of other production firms without a particular reputation for sport.
BT declined to comment whilst an ITV spokesman denied that the broadcaster was talking to the company about taking Premier League rights.