BT BUY UP ALL EURO ACTION IN £1.2bn DEAL
UEFA’S pursuit of maximum revenue from their Champions League TV rights saw them use a terrestrial bid for highlights to hike up the price of a £ 1.182billion monopoly agreement with BT Sport.
The auction for the Champions League and Europa League rights that started last Wednesday went to a second round of bids before the announcement yesterday. ITV, who were only interested in a highlights package, increased their offer significantly during the final negotiations.
But UEFA preferred to take the highest offer on the table for all packages — including the highlights that are currently on ITV.
UEFA’s decision to sell the whole of their European football rights package to pay-TV will frustrate many fans who cannot afford a subscription.
It also comes despite desperate viewing figures on BT, with just over 150,000 watching Leicester beat Bruges to reach the knockout stages.
BT’s £1.182bn outlay is a 32 per cent rise on the £897m they paid for the current contract that has one season to run.
ITV Sport, after making such an effort to retain the highlights, could not hide their dismay. Controller of Sport Niall Sloane said: ‘We’re disappointed that UEFA have chosen to ignore the very strong free-to-air coverage ITV have delivered.’
BT have no plans to sub-licence their content to free-to-air TV platforms before the start of the new deal in 2018-19. Instead they will have a major push on social media to satisfy UEFA’s concerns — if there were any — over viewing figures.
BT intend to make clips, weekly highlights, UEFA’s magazine show and the Champions League and Europa League finals available free on social media — most likely via Twitter and Facebook.
Both finals were streamed by YouTube last May, with BT claiming 12m watched the two matches live. There is the extra promise of increased coverage via their mobile network as well.
BT’s John Petter said: ‘ We are delighted to have renewed these rights. The Champions League and Europa League are two of the best competitions in the world and we would like to thank UEFA for choosing us. The Champions League is due to get even stronger with England, Spain, Germany and Italy guaranteed four places and we are delighted that fans will be able to enjoy two live matches a night for the first time.’
The Champions League will see kick-offs staggered at 6pm and 8pm from the start of the 2018-19 season.
Petter added: ‘We were keen to keep a balance and be financially disciplined. This deal creates a lot of extra value for customers.’
The new contract brought little reaction from Sky, who were furious at losing the Champions League three years ago. Sky have prioritised Premier League football as the one contract they cannot afford to lose — paying £11m a game — while the Champions League is a far more crucial part of the BT portfolio,
It is understood Sky’s firstround bid was based on their own market value of the rights but was close enough to BT’s initial offer to spark an immediate second round.
Sky are not believed to have increased their offer while BT put a lot more money on the table, with UEFA using ITV’s interest in the highlights as leverage.
A UEFA spokesman said: ‘UEFA ran a fair and transparent tender process resulting in BT winning all packages. BT have offered a compelling freeto-air offering including highlights of Champions League and Europa League via social media platforms. This is an innovative approach and we are confident that this will widen the exposure of the competition by reaching a younger target group.’
The strangest part of the tender was BT chief executive Gavin Patterson announcing during a conference speech in the middle of the negotiations that the rampant inflation of sports rights had to end — just as BT were preparing to pay 30 per cent more to retain the Champions League.
Patterson told the annual Enders Analysis conference in London: ‘We don’t need to be No 1 in the sports market, but we do need to be a viable No 2.’