NTL Withdraws From Premier League Deal

Cable group NTL has withdrawn its offer to broadcast the pay-per-view rights to Premier League football matches. The group, which was set to pay £328m to screen 40 matches a season (see The Game Isn’t Over Yet, Says Greg Dyke), said it was unable to agree final terms with the Premier League.

Barclay Knapp, CEO of NTL, said: “Naturally we are disappointed that we have not been able to complete negotiations under terms which both we and the Premier League found satisfactory. Under the terms of the Confidentiality Agreement signed with the Premier League some months ago, we cannot comment any further.”

This was the first time a pay-per-view element had been brought into the bidding war for the highly contested Premier League rights and the deal promised to bring new revenue streams to the UK’s top football clubs. PPV is still in its infancy in this country, however, as last week’s England-Finland match proved.

The first England international game to be broadcast on a pay-per-view basis, PPV group U>Direct was widely criticised both for its reception problems and for the paltry amount of viewers it was believed to have attracted. When the PPV Premier League deal was struck in June this year industry insiders warned that the price was too high and the League is now expected to re-open bidding for the rights at a reduced rate.

Today’s withdrawal could bring into question the validity of the remaining broadcasting deals for the Premiership tournament. Sky retained its right to broadcast the games live while ITV won the highlights to the matches from its rival BBC.

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