BSkyB In Bid To Secure Premier League Match Rights For Mobiles
BSkyB is aiming to secure the rights to show Premier League football games on mobile phones, giving the broadcaster television, online and mobile rights if its bid is successful.
Mobile networks are shying away from bidding for the exclusive rights, but west London based sports production group TWI is set to challenge Sky.
The right to put highlights of Premier League matches on handsets is held exclusively by mobile groups 3 and Vodafone, which joined with Sky, who wanted to put games online and bid £100 million for the combined internet and mobile rights in 2003.
The UK’s newest mobile network, 3, already uses TWI, which takes live feeds from the games and re-purposes them as mobile highlights for its Premier League service. Vodafone uses both TWI and Sky for its football content.
That contract will terminate at the end of the 2006/7 season and a week ago the Premier League started looking for buyers for the next licence, with bids due in by the end of the month.
The Premier League had hoped to get an auction going for mobile phone rights between the five UK mobile phone networks; 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. However, since the last set of rights was sold, a new generation of mobile data services, including news alerts and club-specific services, has sprung up, making exclusive access to highlights less valuable. SkySports News is even available as a streamed TV channel on some handsets.
As a result, the mobile networks are wary of bidding in the auction of mobile rights. Instead they are looking to sign non-exclusive deals with either TWI or BSkyB, depending on which firm wins out.
Although sports rights have suffered in value in recent years, the Premier League franchise has consistently grown in value. The league has raised nearly £2 billion from the latest contract round.
The competition secured its biggest ever pay day last month when BSkyB and Irish pay-TV group Setanta paid a total of £1.7 billion to share live coverage of the 2007-2010 seasons, paying a 30% premium on the current live rights deal (see Sky And Setanta Share Remaining Premiership Rights).
Three weeks ago BT won the right to carry 242 “near-live” league matches each season, in a three-year deal, also with BSkyB, worth £84.3 million (see ‘Near-Live’ Football For Sky And BT Vision). The BBC, meanwhile, is spending £171.6 million on retaining the highlights package.
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