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English PL to tender Mobile phone rights
England - 20 June, 2006
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Now that the TV issue has been settled, the next race is to put English Premier League matches onto mobile phones.
BSkyB and TWI, the west London-based sports production group, are going after the rights as mobile phone networks shy away from the bidding.
If Sky is successful, it would mean it has snapped up parts of all three types of rights auctioned by the Premier League - TV, online and mobile. The right to put highlights of Premier League matches on handsets is held exclusively by mobile groups 3 and Vodafone, which joined with Sky. The bid was GBP 100 million in 2003 for the combined Internet and mobile rights.
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 2006-2007 season. Last week, the Premier League started looking for buyers for the next licence, with bids due in by the end of the month.
While the value of Premiership TV rights soared, industry insiders said the price tag for the mobile phone rights is likely to be only around GBP 10 million.
The Premier League had hoped to stage an auction for mobile phone rights between the five UK mobile phone networks - 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. But since the last set of rights was sold, a new generation of mobile data services, including news alerts and club-specific services, has risen, making exclusive access a less valuable commodity. For example, SkySports News is available as a streamed TV channel on some handsets.
Mobile networks are wary of bidding for the rights. Instead they are looking to sign non-exclusive deals with either TWI or BSkyB depending on which firm wins.
The league raised nearly GBP 2 billion from the latest contract round. It landed the biggest ever payday last month when BSkyB and Irish pay-TV group Setanta paid a total of GBP 1.7 billion to share live coverage of the 2007-2010 seasons.
Three weeks ago BT inked a three-year deal to carry 242 "near-live" league matches each season, also with BSkyB, worth GBP 84.3 million. The BBC is spending GBP 171.6 million on retaining the highlights package.
BSkyB and TWI, the west London-based sports production group, are going after the rights as mobile phone networks shy away from the bidding.
If Sky is successful, it would mean it has snapped up parts of all three types of rights auctioned by the Premier League - TV, online and mobile. The right to put highlights of Premier League matches on handsets is held exclusively by mobile groups 3 and Vodafone, which joined with Sky. The bid was GBP 100 million in 2003 for the combined Internet and mobile rights.
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 2006-2007 season. Last week, the Premier League started looking for buyers for the next licence, with bids due in by the end of the month.
While the value of Premiership TV rights soared, industry insiders said the price tag for the mobile phone rights is likely to be only around GBP 10 million.
The Premier League had hoped to stage an auction for mobile phone rights between the five UK mobile phone networks - 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. But since the last set of rights was sold, a new generation of mobile data services, including news alerts and club-specific services, has risen, making exclusive access a less valuable commodity. For example, SkySports News is available as a streamed TV channel on some handsets.
Mobile networks are wary of bidding for the rights. Instead they are looking to sign non-exclusive deals with either TWI or BSkyB depending on which firm wins.
The league raised nearly GBP 2 billion from the latest contract round. It landed the biggest ever payday last month when BSkyB and Irish pay-TV group Setanta paid a total of GBP 1.7 billion to share live coverage of the 2007-2010 seasons.
Three weeks ago BT inked a three-year deal to carry 242 "near-live" league matches each season, also with BSkyB, worth GBP 84.3 million. The BBC is spending GBP 171.6 million on retaining the highlights package.
Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 -
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