‘ASTRO LEAVES IT LATE TO SCORE’
Company renews rights to broadcast UCL games, averts potential earnings uncertainty
ASTRO Malaysia Holdings Bhd has averted potential earnings uncertainty after renewing its rights to broadcast UEFA Champions League (UCL) games, said analysts.
They said it would be beneficial for Astro to continue broadcasting, although the rights to broadcast major sports, especially in Europe, had trended upwards.
As the local football fans faced the prospect of missing the first few matches of this season which kicked off early this morning, Astro left it late before announcing that it had kept its broadcasting rights.
“Enjoy tonight’s #UEFAChampionsLeague matches LIVE on Astro and Astro GO!” it tweeted at about 8.35pm yesterday.
Earlier, a statement posted on the Astro Facebook page yesterday said the negotiations had taken longer than expected as there were multiple parties it needed to speak to.
“Rest assured that we will try to get an agreement before kick-off. We will provide an update on the outcome very soon. Thank you,” it added.
Astro is not the only one which could hold back from the bidding.
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd told The Straits Times that it had remained in discussion with UEFA Champions League and Europa League licensee to secure the rights.
It also responded to fans queries and said: “The previous three seasons of the UEFA Champions League were aired on Eurosport channel which held the rights. Since then, DAZN has won the broadcast rights to the upcoming three seasons of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League”.
Malaysian Association of Technical Analysts adviser Nazarry Rosli said there would be some impact on Astro’s bottom line, if it lost the rights, although this might have been discounted by the market.
“Astro’s share price is already on the lower level for sometime and this might mean that the market has already factored it,” he said.
MIDF Research media analyst Martin Chuan Loong Foo said as sports content had been Astro’s competitive edge all this while, it would be beneficial for Astro to maintain the rights.
However, Loong said even if it were to lose the rights, it would at least help Astro to partially address its rising costs.
Chuan said the research firm still reiterated its “buy” call on Astro and maintained its earnings forecast for the company despite the latest development.
Stadium Astro, the sports entity of Astro, earlier said in its social media channels that the price of the TV rights had risen and as a result, the price of the sports package would also have to reflect that.
“We already have customers complaining the package price is too high. In this economic climate, it wouldn’t make sense to charge our customers even more. So, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” it said.