‘Most people would rather not be there… I’d suggest that FIFA are just looking to get it over with and move on’
WHEN Glen Killane talks about ‘a potential TV audience of over 800 million people’ it gives a sense of the scale of the sports media market that he is operating in. Based out of Geneva, RTÉ’s former Group Head of Sport is executive director of the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) sports wing which has the sort of mind-boggling reach that makes it a major player: 112 member organisations across 56 countries, incorporating nearly 2,000 television, radio and online channels and services.
In other words, the world’s leading alliance of public service media.
A whole different economy of scale from his days in Montrose, though the thread from there to here is maintained in how RTÉ remains one of those members and free-to-air broadcasters that the EBU negotiates sport broadcasting rights for.
A ‘privilege’ is how he describes working for the non-profit organisation that attempts ‘to get sport in front of as many eyeballs as possible’.
Just recently, a deal was done in relation to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, dovetailing nicely with the qualification of Vera Pauw’s Ireland team. The upcoming FIFA World Cup is looming for the 35 countries they have negotiated rights for and he talks here through a tournament that is seeing football intersect with politics and human rights in a public way as arguably never before, not to mention the ethical machinations of life in Qatar.
As a lifelong Dublin GAA supporter, now domiciled with his family across the border in Julianstown in Meath, he discusses the implications of the GAA’s recent five-year media rights deal and the exit of Sky, as well as the potential in the subscription element of GAAGO and what BBC will bring.
‘What we do is operate on behalf of all of the public media organisations across Europe,’ he explains. ‘Buy sports rights on their behalf on a collective basis. Organise partnerships to try and fund those sports rights occasionally as well. For example, we just closed a deal for the FIFA Women’s World Cup for next year for 29 countries. We have the Women’s Euros across 50 countries in Europe just this summer. The FIFA World Cup coming up this month, we have bought the rights for 35 countries which we distribute.
‘Our members are the likes of RTÉ and TG4 in Ireland, BBC and ITV in the UK – the large public and freeto-air members. Some of them are commercial free-to-air but mainly public service media similar to RTÉ or BBC or ITV.
‘The kind of properties in our portfolio are, we are the main rights holders in Europe for the Tour de France, the Vuelta a Espana, all of the cycle classics.
‘World and European Athletics. World gymnastics, European gymnastics. We’ve about 30 different contracts. We’re B2B (Business-toBusiness) so we’re not out there with our brand but we’re quite a big force.’
It’s one that has found a way to compete in a rapidly changing marketplace where satellite broadcasters and big tech platforms like YouTube or Amazon Prime have become players. ‘The collective bargaining element of having the likes of RTÉ and BBC together with the French, Italians and Germans plus 40-plus countries… we’ve members in over 50 countries in Europe and North Africa and the
Middle East. Put that together and it’s a sizeable chunk.’
The FIFA World Cup taking place later this month is front and centre right now. So much debate has already taken place about the venue of Qatar and the politics and human rights element to the staging of it. Ireland star Katie
McCabe just this week said she would be tuning out for various different reasons with the men’s team having failed to qualify.
Killane admits that there is a sense of unease among many members who have signed up for broadcasting rights. ‘We do a direct deal for 35 countries that excludes some of the bigger members – UK, France, Italy. The view is that it’s a tricky one. It’s not a situation that anybody wants to be in – but it is the World Cup. We’ve worked with Human Rights Watch and the Sport for Human Rights group which is a UN offshoot in terms of advising our members on how to approach things on the ground.
‘A lot of our members are saying, “We can report very openly on what is happening on the ground in Qatar. The fact that the World Cup is there gives us a platform to get some of those stories out there and get more notoriety around them.”
‘Some members are scaling back on their operations on the ground, deliberately, but showing the matches because their national team is there. And they are nationally protected events that must be shown free-to-air – so there’s an element there of duty to the public.’
While he admits, ‘I think it’s going to have a negative impact, no doubt about it,’ he says their members won’t be cowed in terms of their reportage. ‘Our commitment to independent coverage and news coverage is greater than ever and will not be deterred by it. We are working with FIFA on it on how to handle it. They have not been getting in the way. They’ve been very open on this, have been trying to make a difference on the ground. I feel that our principles about independent coverage will not be inhibited in any way.’
And yet it is hard to avoid the sense that is going to be one of the most politically shrouded sports events ever.
‘We had the World Cup in Russia in 2018 after what had happened in the Crimea,’ points out Killane. ‘We had the Beijing Winter Games as well. So there are strong political, human rights elements to these events. Where we come from is, we are here to serve the public. But we are absolutely not going to hold back if we see or think human rights or personal freedoms are being undermined. And the freedom to report on that. The freedom to tell that story is a central part of our mission. We’re not going to sugar-coat it in either way.’
It only took last weekend’s edition of BBC satirical show Have I Got News For You to show how sport is bound up in the political debate of our time, mixed in with chat of Rishi Sunak and the latest UK parliamentary soap. The manner in which panellist Ian Hislop took guest host
Gary Neville apart also provided a lesson in how a brand or reputation – personal or otherwise – can quickly take a dent. So how will the brand of football be after this?
‘I get a sense, outside the Qataris, that most people in football would rather not be there,’ says Killane.
We won’t hold back if we see human rights being undermined
‘Even Sepp Blatter just came out there and said it was a “mistake” (to award the tournament to Qatar). I would suggest that FIFA are just looking to get the competition over with and move on. To move on to the US and Mexico for the next one.’
All of this in a week of headlines surrounding the potential sale of Premier League club Liverpool. It’s not hard to think that the possible sale is connected to the failure of the Super League and the media rights revenue linked to that ill-fated power grab.
‘When you look at the Super League, for me, I was a little bit surprised at the reaction from the public. Because what do you really expect when investors like those come in. Big players with deep, deep pockets own a club. They’re looking for a return on the investment. There is no emotional attachment.
‘In one respect, it was good to see the pushback from fans but when you do have these big investors coming in, it’s a case of buyer beware. You’re into high finance and a big return. They’re going to sell to the highest bidder or look to generate more income. Very often, fans and viewers are secondary thoughts here. It’s about a return on investment. It’s delicately balanced at the moment.
When you’re looking at Liverpool looking to be sold, it’s symptomatic of the world those clubs are in. Newcastle, Liverpool, Man City – big, big money behind these clubs. The guys aren’t in it for the good of their health.’
That’s why he remains such an impassioned supporter of free-toair broadcasting. Especially in such uncertain economic times and against a backdrop of an everchanging media landscape. Around the time of the GAA’s previous rights deal, Amazon were namechecked by commercial director Peter McKenna as a potential suitor.
‘For me, I think the cost of living crisis is impacting on subscription services overall. Netflix fell back and then gradually came back. I think there’s probably a few too many subscription services for sport out there and the cost of living crisis will make it challenging. Aggregation is the future here.
‘Now it’s pretty horrible from the consumer sense. From the European sense, you don’t know where to find sport.
Everyone was saying free-toair TV was dead but that is not the case
‘I guess I would say that — we’re on the free side. Keeping sport for free; the democratisation of sport. But I do feel there is a sense that we could be at a saturation point and the cost of living crisis will really test that. How many subscription services can people really sustain?
‘You’re seeing the beginnings of a shrink back. You’ve seen Twitter and Meta make cuts. I think it’s an enormous opportunity for the likes of RTÉ and members of the EBU collectively to find really interesting public, private memberships.
‘We bring mass exposure to the table and not insubstantial amounts of money. But in partnership with these larger tech organisations. There is no silver bullet. Five or six years ago everyone was talking about free-to-air TV, free TV, being dead. That is absolutely not the case. That has not come to pass.
‘I think it’s about balance. Back when I was Head of Sport with
RTÉ, we had a fantastic arrangement with UEFA where we got the best match on a Tuesday and Wednesday and the remainder was on Sky. That actually worked because the public got an element of what they wanted and the subscription services too.
‘I think Sky have come to the conclusion that partnerships are good. And that is the case too with many others since.
‘That’s the way forward I think.’