The Game Isn’t Over Yet, Says Greg Dyke
While grown men were mourning the end of Match of the Day today Greg Dyke, the BBC’s director-general, was in fighting mood. Blaming the outcome of the bid, which brought to an end 36 years of televised highlights on the BBC, on the greed of Premier League officials, he said the Corporation will continue to fight for football rights.
Speaking on Radio Five Live this morning Dyke said that the ITV’s £183m bid to televise the highlights of the matches “makes no economic sense”, and claimed that ITV was pushed into upping the bid by Premier League officials. The BBC currently pays £20m a year for the highlights package. It doubled this amount in a sealed auction bidding war for the contract for the next three years, but was pipped to the post by ITV, who bid £61m a year.
Dyke was criticised by opposition MP’s today who said viewers would begin to question the role of the BBC after such a loss. But he returned by saying: “When I got this job I said I would try and win some sports rights back. The game isn’t over yet.” He said Match of the Day would become a showcase for live football and that the BBC would be bidding for live rights to the FA Cup, the Worthington Cup, and England Internationals.
Chris Smith, secretary of state for culture, media and sport, however, welcomed the ITV deal, which will keep highlights of the matches on terrestrial television. David Liddiment, ITV director of programmes, said: “This is a huge coup for ITV and puts us in an unrivalled position as a terrestrial sports broadcaster. This deal shows ITV’s commitment to bringing the biggest brands in sport, free-to-air, to ITV viewers.”
BSkyB retained the live rights to the games, which they have held since 1992. Speaking after the announcement yesterday, Tony Ball, chief executive at BSkyB, said: “This is a powerful endorsement for Sky and we are delighted to be continuing our relationship with the Premier League for a further three seasons.” Sky has used the rights to televise Britain’s top football matches as the cornerstone of its broadcasting empire in the UK. Yesterday it paid a total £1.11 billion for the three year contract which begins next season.
It has also pledged an extra £22.5 million for interactive services. “The new contract means that Sky will have the first and second choice of games each week totalling 258 live Premier League games over the next four years,” said Ball.
NTL won the 40-match pay-per-view package, in a first for the cable group, which has been furiously increasing its football interests in recent weeks (see NTL Signs Media Deal With Rangers). Barclay Knapp, CEO of the group, said: “Televised Premier League football is entering a new and exciting era. NTL has been a catalyst for bringing more competition to the UK sports rights market. In granting us the PPV licence, the FA Premier League has given NTL the opportunity to bring its innovative pricing, package, and programming skills to live top-flight football.”
He added that NTL will make its PPV service available on all television platforms. Sky’s sports channels are already available on other pay-tv platforms, including ONdigital, which lost out in yesterday’s bidding war. The digital terrestrial broadcaster issued a statement today welcoming the outcome. “Our contracts with Sky and NTL mean that ONdigital subscribers are guaranteed to have access to all Premier League football for the next four years,” it read.
A new structure for the broadcast of the games was set in place earlier this year (see Premier League Bosses Agree More Televised Matches And Pay-Per-View) in order to make the matches available over the greatest number of platforms and to increase the revenue from the rights. The winners were decided by closed auction for the first time in the competition’s history and the total windfall for the league clubs reached £1.64bn over three years.
The league will now receive £548m a year under the new contract compared to £148m a year now. Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, said: “I offer my congratulations to the winners and my commiserations to the losing bidders, particularly BBC TV who have been a valuable broadcasting partner since 1992.”
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