The Business World

Football (soccer) is probably the most played and watched sport around the globe and the English Premier League(EPL) is without a doubt the most followed football league throughout the world and as a result it is the most broadcasted league on television in the whole world. It is therefore not surprising that channels everywhere are fighting to get the broadcasting rights for this entertaining championship. Especially in England where the league takes place but it is also where the competition for the rights is the fiercest between BSkyB, ITV and especially with the arrival of newcomers BT and their big snatch from BSkyB for the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, which are two of the most watched football tournaments around the globe.

With this newcomer, growing quickly and making a statement with the buy of the rights for the main two European tournaments, BSkyB will have trouble keeping the EPL rights (they have the rights until 2015-2016) and not get out bided by BT at the auction happening in mid-2015 as, to keep the rights, BT would have to bid an extra £1.2bn which would equal to £3.5bn. This amount of money is huge and will only mostly advantage the FA and therefore both clubs and players will be advantaged by this extra money for the broadcasting. So I will ask you readers the following question: is this “auction” system for the broadcasting rights, happening at the moment, the best way to attribute those rights? Shouldn’t those rights be given to the channels with the plan that will give the viewers the best entertainment and footballing experience possible?

My answer is that no this auction system is not the best way as this additional £1.2bn is not a small sum and the winning channel will have to cover this extra cost, and guess who will “suffer” from the repercussions? Customers will. Because instead of attributing the rights to the channels with the best plan the rights will be attributed to the highest bider: BSkyB or BT (ITV said they are not ready to pay the additional costs and are therefore out of the competition basically) and they will have to carry on the extra cost to the customers which is a tragedy because then english customers will have to pay extra to watch their passion: football.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/11/bt-champions-league-deal-hits-bskyb-shares