Quote:
Originally Posted by 1andrew1
I can't see the business case for beIN Sports entering the UK market as they will be squeezed between two large players who have the benefits of pay-TV/broadband to subsidise them. I appreciate beIN is backed by the Qatar government and it has a presence in France but it does own PSG there. If they do, I suspect it will be in co-operation with BT. There have been forum rumours that beIN would buy Setanta or Premier Sports but I'm sure everyone talks to everyone else and not necessarily about merging.
Prices for Sky Sports traditionally go up yearly by a small amount unrelated to Sky's sporting rights costs so I expect this to continue unless it loses significant rights. The last auction saw Sky's Premier League bill go up by 71%. It was unable to pass the costs of this rise onto its subscribers and if rights went up again by this amount I would only expect the small regular rise again.
|
I would suggest that the business case is less about short term profit over the course of one rights cycle and more about gaining influence over the Premier League. The most significant opposition to a winter World Cup is from the Premier League (Qatar don't want one either but it might be the only way they keep hold of it), Qatar also want to stage an off season tournament consisting of Premier League teams and there has been talk about the possibility of a regular season match being played abroad, the so called "game39", which refuses to go away despite mass opposition.
On top of that, of course, is the fact that bein is a global network of channels, so might stand to gain from efficiencies by expanding. It's very possible that they are already in a position to produce Premier League matches for less than either Sky or BT.